Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 423

Tesla has just announced its new Megapack, a new gigantic battery system that will replace "peaker" power plants that will see energy being generated when the local electricity grid gets overloaded.

The new Tesla Megapack is already being deployed, with Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) using multiple Megapacks at Moss Landing on Monterey Bay, California. This is just 1 of 4 locations that will see Tesla's new Megapack batteries installed, with each of them storing up to 3 megawatt hours (MWh) of energy at a time.

They can be daisy-chained to store over 1GWh of energy storage, something that Tesla claims is enough energy to power every home in San Francisco for six hours. In typical Tesla engineering fashion, the new Megapacks will include "battery modules, bi-directional inverters, a thermal management system, an AC main breaker and controls".

The International Space Station (ISS), just like anyone's room or house, accumulates garbage or rubbish over time. ISS astronauts have now disposed some of their built up garbage by using Earth's atmosphere.

Just recently, Elon Musk's space exploration company, SpaceX launched a cargo ship to the ISS via their Falcon 9 rocket. The Falcon 9 was carrying their Dragon Capsule that contained supplies for numerous scientific experiments, and other necessities for the astronauts aboard. This morning, the docking compartment on the Russian section of the ISS released the Progress 72 cargo spacecraft. This craft was at the ISS for 4 months and once its supplies were extracted after its arrival it was literally used as one big bin.

When re-entering the Earth's atmosphere, the object is introduced to extreme friction which causes sparks and intense flames to be produced. This is the disposal method for the rubbish on the ISS as Progress 72 is now currently making its way down to Earth's atmosphere loaded with "trash and discarded gear for a fiery, but safe disposal over the Pacific Ocean." In other news about the ISS, the supplies that SpaceX's Dragon Capsule were carrying will allow for scientists to test 3D human tissue printing in low gravity, more on that here.

Considering the thought that glasses technology will soon be adopted by the mainstream, what would be the extent of that technology? Perhaps some sci-fi level contact lenses that allow the user to have mini-binoculars in their eyes.

Scientists at the University of California, San Diego have designed and created some brand new contact lenses that can do just that. The lenses are capable of measuring the electrooculographic signals the eye creates when it is moved up and down. Since these signals are tracked, the lenses measure the impulses that are generated by the eye and when users blink twice the focal length on the lenses is adjusted.

The focal length on these contact lenses can be changed by as much as 32%, simply by the user of the contacts moving their eyes and blinking twice. Shengqiang Cai, a lead researcher for the new contacts told New Scientist, "Even if your eye cannot see anything, many people can still move their eyeball and generate this electro-oculographic signal." Since these signals are always being sent from the eye, researchers say that these contacts could have applications in "visual prostheses, adjustable glasses, and remotely operated robotics in the future."

In something out of an evil villain from a superhero movie, the French government is pushing to have lasers and guns on its satellites by as early as 2030.

French President Emmanuel Macron announced news of a French space force defending its satellites recently, which has quickly morphed into seeing France's Ministry of Defense announcing a new project that would see guns and lasers attached to satellites. The country is spending $780 million of its military budget in space defense, adding to the existing $4 billion military program for 2019-2025.

The country has planned for its military to build next-gen satellites that are capable of detecting enemies and other objects with cameras, and then the successor to that gets huge upgrades with on-board submachine guns, and even lasers that will be used in a destructive force to "disable other satellites" by shooting their solar panels.

Before you freak out, asteroids whizz past Earth all the time and NASA is currently tracking 90 percent of the most dangerous asteroids in space. There is no immediate global level threat at the moment, but astronomers did just miss an asteroid that could of caused a nuclear-level destruction.

The asteroid was called 2019 OK and on July 25th, it flew passed Earth at a range of 45,000 miles. The asteroid ranged in size from 187-427 feet and according to Michael Brown, an associate professor in astronomy at Monash University in Australia, if the asteroid collided with Earth the destruction would devastating. "The lack of warning shows how quickly potentially dangerous asteroids can sneak up on us" said Brown.

This also isn't the first time an asteroid has appeared out of nowhere to us, back in 2013 a meteor exploded over the Russian city of Chelyabinsk and the blast was stronger than a nuclear explosion. This meteor injured over 1,000 people and was only 66 feet in diameter which is much smaller than 2019 OK which just flew past Earth. Astronomers will still continue to monitor asteroids and better yet NASA are currently working on ways to deflect asteroids that are in route to collide with Earth.

A couple of days ago, SpaceX launched their Dragon Capsule spacecraft to the International Space Station (ISS) on a cargo delivery mission. That craft has now be successfully grabbed by the ISS's robotic arm.

On July 25th, SpaceX launched the Dragon Capsule on their Falcon 9 rocket containing more than 5,000 lbs of supplies and equipment. The craft also contains 2,500 lbs of science gear that will enable and fuel many experiments that will be conducted on the ISS by astronauts.

Flight controllers on Earth will operate the ISS's robotic space arm to port the craft on the ISS which will then enable the on-board astronauts to venture into the capsule to acquire the supplies. The supplies that will be on-board of the Dragon Capsule will enable the astronauts to conduct experiments in low-gravitational environments. Some of these experiments include the fabrication of human tissue using a 3D printer and how microgravity affects the process of human tissue healing and regeneration.

NASA's 20 year old Chandra X-Ray Observatory launched from the surface of Earth to give NASA, and their researchers a better understanding of how radiation is produced and observed in the universe.

The observatory launched 20 years ago and was named after the Nobel Prize winner Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, who was an indian American astrophysicist and was honored for his contribution towards the now current understanding of astronomy. Chandra X-Ray Observatory launched back on July 23, 1999 and has been orbiting earth and observing the structure of huge galaxy clusters ever since.

Belinda Wilkes, Chandra X-ray Center director gave a statement on some newly released images out of Chandra, saying "Chandra remains peerless in its ability to find and study X-ray sources. Since virtually every astronomical source emits X-rays, we need a telescope like Chandra to fully view and understand our universe." Not only is Chandra observing galaxies and star clusters, the observatory is also monitoring gravitational waves (massive ripples in space-time) and black hole mergers.

A recent study conducted by some international astronomers has shined a light on a dying star that is very similar to the one that is in our solar system and how it will eventually die.

It is a strange thought to consider the fact that our Sun, literally the source of life in our solar system will eventually die. Perhaps not in our life time (you reading this), but eventually it will. Dr Meridith Joyce, an astronomer at The Australian National University (ANU) in collaboration with Dr Laszlo Molnár and Dr Laszlo Kiss from the Konkoly Observatory of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences conducted the recent study on T Ursae Minoris (T UMi).

The astronomers observed T Ursae Minoris becoming unstable with internal energy flares from nuclear fusion that are deemed "hiccups" by the astronomers. These "hiccups" are scientifically called thermal pulses and according to Dr Joyce, "cause drastic, rapid changes in the size and brightness of the star, which are detectable over centuries. The pulses of old stars like T UMi also enrich the entire Universe with elements including carbon, nitrogen, tin and lead."

Following up on yesterday's news regarding the delay of SpaceX's cargo mission to the International Space Station (ISS), recent news coming out from SpaceX confirms that today's launch was a success and that the Dragon capsule is on its way to the ISS.

And we have lift off, or at least SpaceX has gotten lift off from their Falcon 9 rocket carrying the robotic Dragon Space Capsule planned for connection with the ISS. This successful launch marks the 18th mission for SpaceX and also the first time that the same Dragon spacecraft has flown to the ISS three times.

In celebration of this milestone, SpaceX has placed three decals on the side of the capsule, two ISS logos and one more to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing back in 1969. Bill Specht, NASA's deputy manager for ISS Transport Integration spoke out about the launch, saying "Historically today, 50 years ago, we were able to complete Kennedy's challenge to get men to the moon."

If you didn't know, SpaceX planned to launch a rocket to the International Space Station on a cargo mission. That planned flight has been unfortunately delayed.

The original scheduled launch was for today, July 24th and SpaceX's workhorse rocket the Falcon 9 was planned to take a robotic Dragon cargo capsule. The location for the launch was from Launch Complex 40 at Cap Canaveral Air Force Station at 6:24 p.m. EDT (2024 GMT).

This isn't the first time the Falcon 9 and the Dragon have taken flight, as SpaceX has already gotten two completed flights to the ISS. According to the Air Force's 45th Space Wing Weather Squadron, there was only a 30% chance that today's weather would act as expected. Will Ulrich, a official employee at the Weather Squadron said "Today's weather looks terrible. There's a pretty unique weather pattern we have in place. With an instantaneous window today, either the weather is good or it is not."