Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 64

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) has only been operating for a few months now, and it has already captured its first direct image of an exoplanet.

Using Webb's Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) and the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI), the high-tech space telescope was able to capture a gas giant planet orbiting the star called HIP 65426, which was first discovered in 2017 with the Very Large Telescope located in Chile. Webb followed up on previous observations of the star, and using its infrared instruments, the space telescope focused on the exoplanet HIP 65426 b.

Notably, exoplanets aren't particularly easy to spot as they are much fainter than the stars they're orbiting. As for HIP 65426 b, this exoplanet is about 10,000 times fainter than its local star in the near-infrared and a couple thousand times fainter in mid-infrared light. Another factor for HIP 65426 b's dimness is how far away it is from its parent star, with estimations putting its orbit around HIP 65426 at 100 times the distance between the Sun and Earth.

A new survey of planetary defense experts by the Apollo Academic Surveys and Carrie Nugent of the Olin College of Engineering in Massachusetts has sought to gauge how much of an issue satellite overcrowding could become.

The survey covered topics relating to near-Earth asteroids (NEAs) and their detection. All 34 experts rated themselves as at least slightly concerned about the potential for satellite overcrowding to impact astronomers' ability to detect asteroids. Twenty-four percent of respondents reported being extremely concerned. One respondent cited an early-2022 study, which found that "LEO [Low Earth Orbit] satellites can severely affect observations taken during twilight, and that is an important parameter space for NEO [Near-Earth Object] search."

A significant culprit in the growing issue of satellite overcrowding is SpaceX, which since launching its Starlink satellite constellation, has added over 3,200 satellites into orbit around Earth, contributing the most individual satellites to orbit of any corporation or country. However, a few hundred of this number are now inactive. Still, like many inactive satellites produced by other manufacturers, they often continue to orbit Earth long after they become defunct, with a handful falling back to Earth or burning up in the atmosphere.

Justin Maki, an Imaging Scientist and the Mastcam-Z Deputy Principal Investigator at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), has collated the various bits of human-made debris the space agency's rovers have found on Mars.

Much of the recently found debris has been from the entry, descent, and landing (EDL) hardware that NASA used to carry its Perseverance rover to Mars' surface. The rover landed on the planet on February 18th, 2021, and the EDL hardware was jettisoned a safe distance away during the rover's descent. Since then, Perseverance and the accompanying Ingenuity helicopter have imaged EDL debris.

On Sol 414 (April 19th, 2022), or the 414th Martian day, of Perseverance's mission, the Ingenuity helicopter spotted the discarded parachute and rover's backshell one kilometer (0.62 miles) from the mission's landing site. As of Sol 508 (July 24th, 2022), the Perseverance rover has found about six suspected pieces of EDL debris in the Hogwallow Flats region, located about 2 kilometers (1.24 miles) northwest of where the EDL initially crashed.

A Chinese nuclear reactor under ongoing development and intended for use in space applications has passed a comprehensive performance evaluation by China's Ministry of Science and Technology on August 25th, 2022.

Multiple state media outlets reported on the reactor passing its evaluation, but they have since been deleted, despite not containing any technical details regarding the reactor. The Chinese Academy of Sciences designed the reactor, with the project beginning in 2019. It can produce one megawatt (MW) of electricity, though specific applications for the technology have yet to be revealed. This number dwarfs the energy required to run the International Space Station (ISS), which requires between 84 and 120 kilowatts.

Wu Weiren, the director of China's recently-established Tiandu deep space exploration laboratory, called for space-based nuclear power innovations to support future missions. The nation could use the new technology to support China's currently-in-development space station, Tiangong. The space station has an expected lifetime of at least ten years, but this could be extended with a nuclear power upgrade, or additional future space stations may benefit from the technology.

Neil deGrasse Tyson has explained on his radio show StarTalk just how big numbers can get, including a physical representation of $100 billion.

Posted to deGrasse Tyson's personal TikTok account, the famed astrophysicist began with Amazon founder Jeff Bezos' net worth, which is currently about $130 billion. deGrasse Tyson rounded down to $100 billion and explained that if each of the bills in the $100 billion was placed end-to-end, it would wrap around the Earth two hundred times. Additionally, with the leftover money, deGrasse Tyson explained that if the notes were placed vertically, the stack would reach the moon and back ten times over.

Using the same framework outlined by deGrasse Tyson, SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has an estimated net worth of $230 billion (rounded down to $200 billion), would be able to achieve all of the aforementioned feats twice over. The astrophysicist continued to higher numbers and said that humans experience 1 billion in seconds, with most occurring during their 31 years alive as it takes 31 years to count to 1 billion. To illustrate 1 trillion, deGrasse Tyson, it would mean it would take 31 years times 1,000 - equaling 1 trillion.

NASA is working on a viable way to create oxygen on Mars, and it's Mars Oxygen In-Situ Resource Utilization Experiment (MOXIE) is showing its worth by successfully converting Mars' toxic atmosphere into breathable oxygen.

MOXIE is a relatively small instrument attached to NASA's Perseverance rover that is currently exploring the Jezero Crater in search of signs of ancient life. Perseverance landed in the Jezero Crater in February 2021, and since then, the MOXIE instrument has been converting Mars' carbon dioxide-rich atmosphere into breathable oxygen, with the small instrument creating as much as 0.2 ounces of oxygen per hour, which is about the same as a small tree.

The MOXIE instrument is run by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and according to members of the MOXIE team, they have already learned a large amount from the small amount of oxygen that the instrument has produced and that this new information will inform engineering in creating large-scale MOXIE's. Since Mars' atmosphere is about 96% carbon dioxide, MOXIE's will be essential to providing oxygen to colonists living on Mars' surface.

There is growing concern within the US government about space-based weapons development by Russia and China.

Pentagon officials have scheduled a meeting for September 6 and September 7 to discuss how China and Russia's potential development of space-to-ground and fractional orbital bombardment systems could influence the United States. According to the meeting agenda per DefenseNews, the meeting will also be used to conduct US response options to these newly developed weapons systems.

The meeting will feature many top US officials, such as the Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks, along with the Defense Policy Board and national security members. The US has reason to be concerned with other nations' space-based weapons development as China and Russia have both demonstrated new space-based weaponry and anti-satellite systems. It was only in October of last year that China demonstrated it was capable of creating a spacecraft that can grapple to satellites, as well as ground-to-space weapons systems that deployed missiles and laser weapons.

SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has recently been very vocal about his position on the biggest risks to civilization, which has now caused experts in fields that Musk has mentioned to fire back at the CEO.

It was only a few days ago that Musk took to his personal Twitter account to inform his 100+ million followers that population collapse due to low birthrates was a much larger risk to civilization than global warming. This isn't the first time Musk has rung the bell on population collapse, as the billionaire has previously stated in multiple interviews that he is gravely concerned with declining birth rates.

According to the United Nations projections, Earth is expected to reach 8 billion people by the end of November this year, with further projections estimating an additional 500 million people in the following 8 years. Even further projections estimate that in 2080 the world's population will peak at approximately 10.4 billion, with a 50% that population growth will half and essentially plateau by 2100.

Officials have watched the Sun's growing activity for quite some time now, but recently our star released a series of powerful solar flares.

Space.com has reported that the Sun released a trio of solar flares between August 27 and August 29. The strongest of the flares was an M8-class flare that was reported to have happened on Monday, August 29. NASA ranks solar flares on a similar scale to the Richter scale used for earthquakes, but instead, it includes letters. Solar flares range in severity from A-class level being the smallest to B-class, C-class, M, and finally, X-class being the most powerful.

As outlined by NASA, each of the letters represents an increase of 10-fold the energy output from the flare, which means that an X-class solar flare is 10 times more powerful than an M-class, and an M-class is 100 times more powerful than a C-class. Notably, the scale also features a finer scale of numbers ranging from 1-9. Furthermore, the space agency notes that solar flares C-class and below are too weak to noticeably affect Earth, but M-class and above can cause radio blackouts and radiation storms that can endanger astronauts.

Elon Musk recently sat down for an interview at the ONS Foundation Conference in Norway where he answered multiple questions regarding the future of sustainable energy.

During Musk's interview the Tesla and SpaceX CEO touched on fossil fuels and the progression of a sustainable economy. Musk said that Earth needs to have more oil and gas, but at the same time should be putting effort into developing more sustainable energy. Following this statement Musk said that he predicts by 2030 that almost half of all manufactured cars will be electric.

Stemming off of electric cars Musk also said that he hopes he can announce the location of a new Tesla factory close to the end of this year, while saying there is "no shortage" of raw materials on Earth for batteries to be built. On a more personal note, Musk was asked "what keeps you up at night", and Musk's answer was simple - an orbital Starship and self-driving Tesla cars. Musk has answered this question in previous interviews and has even set public goals for himself, writing on Twitter - 2 main goals this year, Starship to orbit and Full Self Driving wide release.

A trail of Starlink satellites from Elon Musk's SpaceX has been spotted flying overhead in the night sky of Johannesburg, South Africa, on August 30th, 2022.

Over 3,000 Starlink satellites are now in orbit since SpaceX began forming the satellite constellation in low Earth orbit (LEO) in 2019. SpaceX hopes to achieve global coverage by 2023, providing accessible Internet services to the entire planet. Currently, Starlink services 500,000 subscribers in 39 countries, with SpaceX focusing on bolstering coverage in remote and low-coverage areas first.

Reportedly, SpaceX plans to bring the Starlink service to Mozambique and Nigeria by September 2022, marking its first availability in African countries. The recent sighting of Starlink satellites over Gauteng, a small province in South Africa, sparked reports of potential meteors and shooting stars. However, weather forecaster Gauteng Weather noted on Twitter, "so-called 'meteor' spotted over Gauteng on the evening of Monday August 29th is most likely to just be the Starlink Satellite Train."

Norwegian startup company World Wide Wind (WWW) has unveiled designs for floating vertical axis wind turbines (VAWTs) for offshore wind farms to generate renewable energy.

The turbines feature two sets of blades, one stacked on top of the other, that are set to contra-rotate, meaning one will rotate clockwise while the other rotates counterclockwise. VAWTs offer numerous benefits over conventional horizontal axis wind turbines (HAWTs), which contain more heavy components concentrated at the end of a long pole, including cooling systems, drivetrains, gearboxes, generators, and the turbine's blades.

In contrast, VAWTs concentrate most of their heavy machinery at their base, so they tend to orient themselves much more vertically, posing less of a challenge to keep upright in an offshore setting. VAWTs can also accept wind blowing from any direction, while HAWTs have to turn to face the wind. Though VAWTs are generally less efficient than a typical HAWT, their design enables them to be grouped more closely together, potentially allowing higher energy production per unit area for a wind farm utilizing VAWTs instead of HAWTs.

A study on the building of the pyramids titled "Nile waterscapes facilitated the construction of the Giza pyramids during the 3rd millennium BCE" has been published in the journal PNAS.

A French research team has discovered evidence of how the ancient Egyptian civilization took advantage of the Nile River to transport giant stone blocks into position when assembling the pyramids in Giza. The researchers hypothesized that the ancient Egyptians developed a port complex that would enable them to utilize annual flooding from the Nile River to move building materials to the base of the pyramids, and created waterways to connect the area to the river.

A study on the wireless power transmission technology titled "Long-range wireless optical power transfer system using an EDFA" has been published in the journal Optics Express.

Researchers from Sejong University in South Korea have created a new laser charging system that can transmit power using infrared light over up to 30 meters (98.4 feet), offering a safe alternative to corded charging for mobile devices and powering the Internet of Things (IoT) devices spread throughout an area. The system could deliver 400 milliwatts (mW) of power across this distance, enough to charge sensors but not quite enough to charge mobile devices yet.

Wireless power transmission has been achieved over greater distances, but transmitting power safely across meter-scale distances has posed challenges. The researchers overcame this with a technique known as distributed laser charging, separating the laser's transmitter and receiver, creating a laser cavity between them through which light-based power can be transmitted. When a device interrupts the line of sight, the system automatically changes to a power-safe mode that allows it to deliver power wirelessly and safely.

NASA has reviewed the data it acquired from the failed launch attempt of the Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion spacecraft for the Artemis 1 mission on August 29th.

The space agency is now confident they can address the issues facing the launch and have scheduled a new launch attempt for a two-hour window beginning at 2:17 pm EDT (18:17 UTC) on Saturday, September 3rd. The launch will mark the first test of the Orion spacecraft, the SLS, and the ground systems at NASA's Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, where the launch will take place.

During the initial launch attempt, ground teams could not chill down the SLS rocket's four RS-25 engines to the approximately 420 degrees Fahrenheit (215.6 degrees Celsius) required, with engine 3 maintaining higher temperatures than the others. A hydrogen leak was also identified, which teams were able to address by manually controlling propellant flow rates.

Elon Musk has recently spoken to reporters about Earth's reliance on fossil fuels such as oil and gas, with the Tesla and SpaceX CEO saying the planet can't just jump to renewable energy overnight.

Musk talked to reporters at the ONS foundation conference in Norway, saying that he came to the conference to show his appreciation to the Norwegian people for their support in electric vehicles and sustainable transport. The Tesla CEO and founder was asked his thoughts on fossil fuels such as oil and gas, where he replied that Earth will still need to use fossil fuels or else "civilization will crumble". In order for civilization to function Earth needs oil and gas.

Musk says that any reasonable person would say that Earth needs to continue to harvest fossil fuels in order to keep civilization functioning at an exponential rate. Additionally, the SpaceX CEO says that while fossil fuels need to be harvested there needs to be a simultaneous effort put into accelerating the development into sustainable energy.

A study on the new views of the Moon titled "Cryogeomorphic Characterization of Shadowed Regions in the Artemis Exploration Zone" has been published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

Researchers from ETH Zurich have used artificial intelligence (AI) to assist them in viewing parts of the Moon permanently in shadow. Their study looks at the south polar region, which contains numerous impact craters that never receive sunlight and are always shadowed. Inside these craters, the temperature drops to between about -170 degrees Celsius (-274 degrees Fahrenheit) and -240 degrees Celsius (-400 degrees Fahrenheit), nearing absolute zero.

The cold temperatures mean ice could be found in the craters, as water vapor freezes and becomes trapped inside the crater. Other volatile substances could also form solids and ice throughout the crater, providing astronauts with a potential water source or source for chemicals that may be used as rocket fuel or applications like radiation shielding.

The SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute has revealed its Allen Telescope Array (ATA) in northern California has located NASA's Voyager 1 spacecraft.

Voyager 1 has traveled further from Earth than any human-made object in history, reaching 23.3 billion kilometers (14.5 billion miles) away at the time of writing. It launched almost 45 years ago and has long since left the solar system, journeying into the interstellar medium, the space between star systems. As part of ongoing refurbishments for the ATA, the array's instruments were used to detect Voyager 1.

The ATA is the first radio telescope built from the ground up to be used for searching for intelligent life. It comprises 42 6.1-meter (20 feet) diameter telescopes, of which about 20 have wideband cryogenically cooled feeds, used to detect electromagnetic waves with frequencies between 1 to 12 gigahertz (GHz). These 20 antennae were used on July 9th, 2022, to receive the data being downlinked from Voyager 1, which transmits using ~8420.43 megahertz (MHz) waves.

A study on the technique titled "Selectivity in single-molecule reactions by tip-induced redox chemistry" has been published in the journal Science.

Researchers from the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia have used an instrument that uses scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) to map the positions of individual atoms making up single molecules, to which they can then apply voltages. The team has used an extremely sharp tip, measuring only a few atoms wide, to apply voltages to the bonds between the atoms in a molecule, breaking them to allow new bonds to form.

A Tesla Model 3 has been found stuck halfway into the ground after monsoonal storms in the Mojave Desert in California.

The National Park Service (NPS) has shared the photo of the Model 3 found within the Mojave National Preserve to serve as a reminder for "everyone to travel the road system carefully and slowly and to Drive Like A Tortoise(TM) to protect human life and wildlife." The Tesla's occupants were not injured after they appear to have circumvented road closures, though their vehicle had to be left behind after it became trapped in the ground on North Kelbaker.

The NPS is preparing to assess damages and make repairs as part of their monsoon recovery operations after more than two inches of rain fell on the Hole-in-the-Wall area on Thursday afternoon, August 25th. By comparison, another region of the Mojave Desert, the Death Valley, experiences only about two inches of rain yearly.