Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 5
The latest and most important Science, Space, & Robotics news - Page 5.
Elon Musk's Neuralink to conduct trial to see if its brain implact can control a robotic arm
Elon Musk's brain-computer interface (BCI) startup, Neuralink, has announced it has received approval to test its BCI implant with an assistive robotic arm.
The first-ever study will see someone using a BCI to control a robotic arm with just their thoughts, the post by Neuralink on X said: "We're excited to announce the approval and launch of a new feasibility trial to extend BCI control using the N1 implant to an investigational assistive robotic arm".
Brain implants and controlling a robotic arm isn't something entirely new, as it has been done before with cumbersome setups that required cables running to the research participants' head and then to a computer that decoded the brain signals. Neuralink's brain-computer interface (BCI) is wireless, making everything far easier. On top of that, Musk has Tesla and its robotics side, so it's a family affair technology wise.
NASA captures unprecedented view of secret US military 'city under the ice'
A NASA scientist has captured an unprecedented view of a secret US military research base that is known as the "city under the ice".
That NASA scientist is Chad Greene, who was joined by other NASA engineers who were conducting testing on the Greenland Ice Sheet with a radar instrument, which gathers valuable data by beaming out radio waves at a target and measuring how long it takes for them to get back to the instrument. By doing this, researchers are able to map the surface of ice sheets, and what's beneath them. Using NASA's UAVSAR (Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar) mounted to the belly of the aircraft, researchers detected signs of a base beneath the ice.
The team corroborated the radar data with the known coordinates of Camp Century, otherwise known as the "city under the ice". This scientific military base was drilled directly into the ice sheet of Greenland and was used during the Cold War as an outpost to conduct experiments on creating nuclear missiles capable of hitting the Soviet Union across Greenland. Camp Century is now approximately 100 feet below the surface, and the evidence of the base gathered recently by NASA scientists lines up with the historical maps of the base's planned layout, such as underground parallel structures used for all of the base's many facilities.
SpaceX releases epic 'buoycam' footage of Starship splashing down in the ocean
SpaceX recently completed its sixth flight of Starship, the world's largest and most powerful rocket, and now the company has released awesome footage of Ship splashing down in the Indian Ocean.
The Elon Musk-led company recently unlocked a new phase of development following its sixth launch of Starship, which was deemed a successful test flight despite automated health monitoring checks triggering Super Heavy, the booster, to abort a catch on the launch tower.
The suborbital flight took place on November 19, and the ship landed off the northwestern coast of Australia. The splashdown moment was captured by a camera floating in the water near the landing zone, which shows the 165-foot-tall upper stage of Starship slowly making a descent by firing its boosters. Notably, Flight 5 was launched during the morning time in Texas, which resulted in a splashdown in the Indian Ocean during the night local time. As for Flight 6, SpaceX conducted the launch during the late afternoon on November 19, resulting in a splashdown during daytime.
NASA selects SpaceX to send a $3.35 billion nuclear-powered helicopter to Saturn
NASA has announced it will be choosing SpaceX's Falcon Heavy rocket to send its Dragonfly spacecraft to one of Saturn's many moons. The goal will be to investigate the moon for any signs of ancient or current life.
The space agency took to its blog on its official website to announce it has selected SpaceX to power its $3.35 billion mission to Saturn's massive moon Titan. The mission will involve the use of SpaceX's Falcon Heavy launch vehicle, which was also used as a means of transportation for NASA's Psyche and Europa Clipper missions. As for what SpaceX will be getting out of that $3.35 mission budget, NASA writes the contract with the launch provider as a firm-fixed-price contract that has a value of approximately $256.6 million, which includes all launch services and other mission-related costs.
As for what Dragonfly will achieve, NASA plans on launching the car-sized rotorcraft to Titan in July 2028. Dragonfly will spend six years getting to Titan, where it will land and then go from location to location, testing samples of materials it collects. Titan was selected as a location because it is the only known body beyond Earth that hosts stable liquids, meaning it could be possible the environment is capable of supporting life. Notably, Dragonfly is a nuclear-powered rotorcraft that will spend approximately 2.5 Earth years on the surface of Saturn's moon.
Tesla is looking for AI Teleoperation workers: remote control robotaxis, humanoid robots
Tesla is actively hiring from its AI Teleoperation team, with successful applicants needing to use a state-of-the-art VR rig to remotely use and train their robotaxis and humanoid robots.
We last heard that the company was paying $48 per hour for staffers to wear a motion capture suit and use a VR headset to train the robots, but now Tesla's AI Teleoperation team will provide remote access to their robotaxis and humanoid robots, with state-of-the-art VR rigs to remotely operate them in the real world.
What to expect: Tesla AI's Teleoperation team is charged with providing remote access to our robotaxis and humanoid robots. Our cars and robots operate autonomously in challenging environments. As we iterate on the AI that powers them, we need the ability to access and control them remotely. This requires building highly optimized low latency reliable data streaming over unreliable transports in the real world.
SpaceX launches Starlink's new direct-to-cell (DTC) technology, seamless global coverage
SpaceX's exciting Starlink team has just enabled its direct-to-cell satellite communications, with a direct connection from Starlink satellites to your smartphone, bypassing traditional cell towers in areas with no coverage.
Tesla and SpaceX boss Elon Musk said that Starlink's new satellite "enables internet connectivity for your mobile phone with no extras equipment or special app. It just works". The new direct-to-cell Starlink connectivity isn't available in every country, but it is available through particular carriers in the following countries:
It's an incredible move by Starlink, slowing webbing out their satellite communications technology with rocket launch after rocket launch, new satellite after new satellite. Personally I'm using Starlink here in South Australia, and enjoying 250-350Mbps where I can only get 50-60Mbps through fiber in my area.
SpaceX promises huge 2Gbps speeds with Starlink through next-gen satellites launching soon
SpaceX is cooking up some upgrades to its Starlink satellite internet system, with upgrades of up to 2Gbps speeds and even lower latency in the future.
At the annual Baron Investment Conference on Friday, SpaceX president and COO Gwynne Shotwell said: "Next generation, we'll have smaller beams, more capacity per beam, lower latency". The SpaceX COO continued, talking about the continuous upgrades to Starlink's satellite communication and its advancements moving fast.
Shotwell said that similar to Moore's Law, which famously predicted the number of transistors on a computer chip would double every two years, she added: "The cycle of the increased capacity is basically on the same cycle as chipsets, which is like double the capability every two years".
SpaceX unlocks new Starship development phase after success of 6th flight
SpaceX has just wrapped up its sixth flight of Starship where the company once again expanded the envelop of what's possible with Ship and its booster Super Heavy.
The Elon Musk-led company launched Starship from Starbase on November 19, 2024, with the massive Super Heavy booster engaging its 33 Raptor engines to push Ship to its designated altitude for separation. Once separation was complete, Super Heavy began the process of returning to the launch site for a catch attempt by the launch tower, as was proven possible in Flight 5.
However, during this phase, automated health monitoring checks were conducted on Super Heavy and the catch tower, resulting in risk mitigation processes being triggered, causing Super Heavy to abort the catch tower attempt.
Scientists create the printing press of writing data to DNA sequences
In the future, electronic data storage systems could consist of complex, dense strands of DNA that has all of the readable data mapped to the genetic code.
While that sounds like something out of a comic book or a futuristic sci-fi film, it's exactly what researchers are attempting to do, and according to recent reports, the team has created what is the equivalent of the printing press but for writing data to DNA. Typical forms of writing data to DNA sequences consisted of writing a single letter a time, or the equivalent of threading beads on a string one at time. However, the team has created a new technique that dramatically speeds up the process.
Reports indicate the team created 700 DNA bricks, each of these bricks contains 24 bases. These bricks can be arranged in a desired order to "print" the applicable data onto blank DNA template strands. The new process has increased the writing process from one at a time to up to 350 bits simultaneously. Here's how it works. Researchers decided to encode the data using binary, or ones and zeros. Some of the DNA bricks are chemically marked one or zero.
Continue reading: Scientists create the printing press of writing data to DNA sequences (full post)
NASA could have already killed life on Mars during its experiment
A mystery surrounds NASA's Viking 1 spacecraft that entered Mars' orbit in 1975, eventually landing on the surface of the Red Planet and becoming the first American spacecraft to touch down on Mars.
One of Viking 1's goals was to test if life resided on the surface of Earth's neighbor, and at the time, much of the testing methodology mimicked processes used on Earth to test samples for the presence of microbes. These processes involve the use of water, one of life's main ingredients, but according to one scientist, the involvement of water could have been what killed any Martian life within the soil samples, resulting in the testing results being negative.
Dirk Schulze-Makuch, an astrobiologist at the Technische Universität Berlin in Germany recognizes the possibility that life may have been discovered by Viking, but the water-based testing process of its experiments could have unintentionally killed it.
Continue reading: NASA could have already killed life on Mars during its experiment (full post)