Science, Space, Health & Robotics News - Page 335

Elon Musk must've tipped a few back over the weekend as the SpaceX founder and CEO teased the idea of nuking Mars again... but this time, he has t-shirts. Musk took to Twitter over the weekend with a simple tweet:

This isn't the first time Musk has talked about nuking the red planet, where four years ago he went on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert and talked about detonating nuclear bombs over the poles of Mars. Musk said this was one of the strategies of making Mars more livable. The interview with Stephen Colbert is below:

Better yet, the official Twitter account for DOOM tweets out that they want Musk to use their BFG 10000:

Researchers have managed to create a new endoscope design that is capable of self-calibrating and taking images of objects smaller than a single cell.

For those that don't know, endoscopes are tiny instruments that are used to view the internals of the body. Traditional endoscopes use camera and light to capture images, while researchers that have developed this new endoscope have achieved 3D image capturing without the use of any optical, electrical or mechanical components. This new endoscope measures in at just 200 microns across, which is approximately the size of a needle.

This new endoscope will have widespread medical application and since its tiny, and doesn't feature any bulky components, it's expected that it will be especially useful in optogenetics. Juergen W. Czarske, Director and C4-Professor at TU Dresden, Germany and lead author on the paper gave a statement regarding the endoscope, saying "The lensless fiber endoscope is approximately the size of a needle, allowing it to have minimally invasive access and high-contrast imaging as well as stimulation with a robust calibration against bending or twisting of the fiber."

While our eyes cannot see high-energy radiant called gamma rays, NASA's Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope certainly can and it has produced incredible images of the cosmic rays hitting the Moon.

Above we have some progression images of the Moon's gamma ray exposure, and according to Mario Nicola Mazziotta and Francesco Loparco from Italy's National Institute of Nuclear Physics in Bari, these images give us a better understanding of how fast-moving particles called cosmic rays interact with the Moon. The particles we are seeing are electrically charged and since the Moon has no magnetic field these charged particles make it to the surface.

When the particles hit the Moon's surface they produce a gamma-ray emission, while the Moon does absorb most of the particles some escape its clutches. Since NASA are planning on returning humans to the Moon by 2024, these findings of gamma exposure on the Moon emphasize the importance of NASA equipping our astronauts with gamma-protection suits so they aren't doused in these cosmic rays. For a more in-depth analysis, check out this article here.

One of NASA's top officials has spoken out about the progress engineers are having building the next rocket that will take some extremely lucky astronauts to the lunar surface.

According to NASA administrator, Jim Bridenstine who spoke to journalists on Thursday at the New Orleans space facility while standing in front of the Orion capsule said that the rocket is about 90% complete. Engineers are still currently working on the core stage of the rocket which is the most complex and tedious part of the building process.

The Orion rocket will be apart of the Artemis 1 moon mission and the first test flight has been scheduled for 2020. The test flight will take a crewless Orion capsule around the Moon twice, yes, its going to do a loop around the moon over the course of a 25.5 day period. After the initial tests of the Orion capsule, the rocket is planned to take the first women and the next man to the lunar surface.

Virgin Galactic has just unveiled the world's first specifically-designed commercial spaceport, announcing that it is now "operationally functional". All systems go for space travel with Virgin Galactic.

The company has been testing flights out in the desert in Mojave, California with its first successful launch jetting off in December 2019. But now, it is hyping up its spaceport facility that passengers will chillax in -- something Virgin Galactic calls the "Gateway to Space" -- before they are flung into space.

There are two floors of dedicated space for spaceflight operations, while another floor is designed for future spaceport customers. Virgin Galactic told the Sun: "We are working towards commercial operation in 2020".

We should be worried about being wiped out by a killer pathogen that is specifically designed to kill people of only a particular race, based on their DNA, warns scientists.

A new report from Cambridge University's Centre for the Study of Existential Risk says that world ogvernments have failed when it comes to preparing against threats like futuristic bioweapons powered by AI and genetic manipulation. Such weapons would have to power to target specific DNA, and kill certain races of people leaving other swaths of the population unharmed.

Imagine it being sprayed in the form of the tinfoil hat conspiracy of chemtrails, and wiping out certain portions of the population.

Planetary scientists have estimated that at some time in the extremely distant past that a planetary embryo collided with Jupiter's core, disrupting its development process.

A new report has been published in the Nature's International Journal of Science, this report shines a new light on the past events of Jupiter's formation. According to the paper, scientists are now giving educated guesses towards a planetary embryo once having a head-on collision with an early stage of Jupiter's core. The paper says that since the Juno mission (a space probe sent out to observe Jupiter) has returned recent data, the once assumptions of Jupiter's core structure and gravitational fields have changed.

The new data sent back from Juno also indicated that Jupiter's core composition had a change throughout its development, scientists estimate that this was caused by the colliding planetary embryo. Scientists ran a simulation with this new found data, the simulation consisted of this embryo planet colliding with Jupiter's core and mixing its heavy elements into Jupiter's inner envelope, resulting in a diluted core. The simulation findings were representative of Jupiter's core. The same scientists expect that Jupiter isn't unique in this regard, as they say that Saturn could have experienced similar events.

NASA will be allowing the private Dream Chase space plane to hitch a ride on their new Vulcan Centaur rocket to the International Space Station (ISS).

According to a new announcement out of the Sierra Nevada Corp, their space shuttle-like vessel that resembles much like a plane, is scheduled to launch with the new Vulcan Centaur rocket that's headed to the ISS. Dream Chaser will be transporting more than 12,000 lbs (5,400kg) of cargo to the space station over the course of six mission, the first of which will begin in late 2021.

ULA Chief Executive Tory Bruno told reporters that "I have been a fan and a supporter and a cheerleader of this amazing vehicle from the first moment I saw it. To be able to make Vulcan's commercial debut with this block of missions underneath the Dream Chaser is just truly exciting." The first test flight is scheduled to begin in 2021, and if the Vulcan Centaur rocket isn't ready to launch by then, Bruno has said that they can always fall back on the already prepared Atlas V. "We're on time with Vulcan, but if something should arise, we're going to make sure that you fly when you're ready."

NASA has said that they will discussing their agency's plans for how astronauts will be landing on the Moon by 2024 on August 16th.

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine accompanied by U.S. Representatives Mo Brooks, Robert Aderholt, Scott DesJarlais and Brian Babin will be revealing the agency's plans for getting humans back on the Moon by 2024 through their Artemis program. The discussion will revolve around how NASA plans to safely land on the lunar surface, and questions and answers will be provided after the initial announcements.

NASA plan on getting the first women and the next man on the Moon in just five years time, this will be done through the Artemis program which is detailed here. Tune into the discussion on Friday, August 16th for more space information. If you didn't know, NASA just completed the final and most complex part of their Orion spacecraft, check that out here.

Scientists have observed a recent neutron star phenomenon and have deemed it a 'glitch'. It seems that computers and technology aren't the only things that can freak out for no apparent reason.

Researchers who published a paper in the Nature Astronomy journal observed a neutron star called Vela glitching out for a short period of time. For those that don't know, neutron stars a fast-spinning corpses of once giant stars, they harbor about 1.5 times the mass of the sun and are much smaller in diameter. These stars are known to "glitch" out every now and again, this 'glitching' causes the star to slow down its rotation speed, then speed it up and then return back to normal speed.

According to the paper, Vela's normal spin speed is 11 times per second but in 2016 it was caught speeding up. Researchers discovered that Vela's spin has three phases, the first being the slowing down of the spin speed, then the speeding up phase and then a return to its normal speed. Researchers have also tried to determine the components that cause these three phases to occur and ultimately the "glitch" to happen. The components are: a crust of ions connected in a lattice pattern, a roiling "soup" of neutrons inside the stars inner crust and a extremely dense core consisting of protons, neutrons and more particles.