Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 65

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.

The molecule the research team studied was tetrachlorotetracene, which contains four chlorine atoms attached to four hexagonal rings of carbon connected in a line. Applying a 3.5V pulse to the molecule removed two chlorine atoms, resulting in the rearrangement of the molecule.

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.

Paleontologists have uncovered the fossilized remains of a massive dinosaur in Portugal, potentially the largest dinosaur fossil found in Europe, if not the entire world.

The ribs pictured each measure about 3 meters (9.8 feet) long and are thought to be from a sauropod. The remains were found in the garden of a house near Pombal, Portugal after the owner of the house first started finding remains in his garden while digging to clear the way for an extension in 2017. The homeowner contacted paleontologists after his discovery, and Portuguese and Spanish paleontologists have since uncovered the ribs and other bones from the sauropod starting in August 2022.

Sauropods were herbivorous dinosaurs standing roughly 12 meters (39 feet) tall and 25 meters (82 feet) long when they roamed the Earth approximately 150 million years ago. Specifically, this specimen is thought to be a brachiosaurid and believed to have lived during the Upper Jurassic period. Sauropods like the brachiosaurid are known for their long necks and tails, which put them amongst the largest animals that have ever lived.

NASA is currently sitting on the launch pad with its Space Launch System (SLS) rocket awaiting approval to launch the Artemis 1 mission to the Moon.

NASA has taken to its social media to announce that its Artemis 1 mission is currently undergoing an "unplanned hold" as the team works on issue with engine 3 that's located on the SLS's core stage. Tuning into the NASA livestream above it was explained that there was a hydrogen leak that caused a temperature failure. The issue is currently being investigated leading up to the launch window opening in approximately 30 minutes from this articles posting time.

Eric Berger, Senior Space Editor at Ars Technica recently took to Twitter to write that he is hearing rumors that "today's a scrub", while also saying that "no confirmation yet". Following up on Berger's initial tweet the senior space editor replied 30 minutes later by writing, "I'd consider this more than a rumor now".

NASA has confirmed that its DART spacecraft is on the right path to colliding with a large asteroid called Dimorphos, in a first-of-its-kind planetary defense mission.

NASA is about to collide a small high-speed spacecraft with an asteroid in an attempt to change the asteroid's orbit around its larger parent asteroid. The binary asteroid system is Didymos, the larger asteroid, and Dimorphos, the small, but still large asteroid that NASA has selected for its target. The space agency is attempting a world's first planetary defense technique and, if proven effective, will become a weapon in the Earth's arsenal to defend against dangerous asteroids.

In a new update on NASA's blog, Andy Rivkin, the DART investigation team co-lead at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) in Laurel, Maryland, said that the measurements that were conducted by the DART team in early 2021 were proven correct, as new observations have confirmed that NASA doesn't need to perform any course changes as the spacecraft is already "right on target". Collision date is locked in for September 27.

Branding matters for businesses, and in particular, to SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who revealed over the weekend that he "agonized" over his choices for both his businesses.

In response to a tweet asking, 'where have all the serifs gone?' Musk said it was maybe 'times for new roman', which was followed up by an individual commenting on Tesla's font, describing it as "pretty sweet". Musk replied to the comment and said that he "somewhat agonized" over the fonts for both Tesla and SpaceX, saying that he "loves fonts tbh". Musk said that there are some similarities between Tesla and SpaceX fonts, in particular, the decision to implement negative space.

Another of Musk's followers replied to the thread and complimented the 'X' in SpaceX, with sparked a reply from Musk, who wrote that the swoop of the X is "meant to represent the rocket's arc to orbit". BusinessInsider reports that the Tesla logo is meant to resemble a cross-section of an electric motor. In other Elon Musk news, the SpaceX and Tesla CEO has warned that there is a bigger threat to humanity than global warming.

NASA's James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) is making waves with its new observations as the observatory has recently discovered CO2 on an exoplanet.

NASA has taken to its blog and social channels to announce that Webb has captured the very first evidence of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere of a planet outside of our solar system. The space agency explains that Webb's observations of a gas giant planet named WASP-39 b, a planet orbiting a Sun-like star approximately 700 light years from Earth. NASA writes that this evidence gives researchers important insights into how planet formation and how Webb can be fine-tuned to detect CO2 in the atmosphere of other planets.

WASP-39 b is about one-quarter the size of Jupiter, with a diameter 1.3 times greater than Jupiter. Additionally, the planet operates at a temperature of 1,600 Fahrenheit, with previous observations from other NASA telescopes such as Hubble and Spitzer revealing the presence of water vapor, potassium, and sodium within WASP-39 b's atmosphere. Using Webb's high-tech infrared instruments, researchers have now confirmed the presence of carbon dioxide, paving the way for Webb's continuous effort to probe exoplanet atmospheres in search of their chemical composition.

Private space company Rocket Lab has revealed its plans to send a small spacecraft into Venus' atmosphere to analyze it for signs of life.

A new study published in the Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics details Rocket Lab's plan to send a Photon satellite deep within Venus's atmosphere to measure its atmospheric composition and geologic history. The results from the mission will give researchers a better idea of the history of Venus and the planet contains the necessary ingredients for life.

The private space company cites its recent success with its CAPSTONE launch and proposes using its reliable Electron launch vehicle to send a small spacecraft that's equipped with an autofluorescing nephelometer (AFN). This instrument is designed to shine a laser onto the many particles within Venus' atmosphere, and if the laser hits a molecule that fluoresces, it's likely organic. An example of this would be the amino acid tryptophan, which is known to have fluorescent properties. Rocket Lab's spacecraft is only small, measuring in at just 2.2 pounds.

Elon Musk has once again taken to his personal Twitter account to warn about a great threat to civilization that he believes isn't talked about enough.

Musk took to his Twitter account on Friday, August 26, to state that population collapse due to low birth rates is a bigger threat to humanity than global warming. This isn't the first time Musk has warned about declining birthrates, as the SpaceX and Tesla CEO shared data from The Wall Street Journal back in June that showcased birthrates across the US failing to hit "sustainable" levels for more than 50 years.

In the same post, Musk shared a video of him stating that population collapse will be the biggest problem the world will face in 20 years, with birthrates exponentially slowing down and the rate of death increasing. Musk emphasized his recent statement of declining birthrates being a bigger problem than global warming by writing, "mark these words", while also acknowledging that global warming is a significant issue that shouldn't be entirely ignored. "(And I do think global warming is a major risk)", wrote Musk.

A new study by researchers from the Stat University of New York has explored the exact components of what makes up tattoo ink and how it can impact the human body.

Dr. John Swierk, the chemist who led the study spoke to the Daily Mail and explained that typical tattoo ink is comprised of two things; one or more pigments, which is either a molecular compound or a solid substance that gives the color. The other aspect of tattoo ink is the carrier package, which help deliver the pigments into the skin. Carrier packages are typically alcohol-based fluids.

The researchers analyzed 56 different tattoo inks that are renowned as common, the study looked at the tattoo inks chemical composition and if they are correctly specified on the label of the product, how the pigments react when exposed to light, and how using them impacts skin. According to the study, several of the inks were found to have chemical compounds that weren't listed on the bottle, with 23 of them containing azo-compounds and one containing ethanol.

NASA is currently doing its final checks on the Space Launch System (SLS) rocket as the agency gears up for the launch of its Artemis 1 mission.

The SLS rocket is scheduled to launch on August 29 and will be the first step in NASA's return to the surface of the Moon. Artemis 1 will be NASA's reconnaissance mission, where the SLS rocket will carry the Orion capsule on a journey around the Moon and back to Earth, gathering vital information for the following Artemis missions. The launch will mark the first test flight of NASA's largest rocket yet, the 322-foot-tall SLS rocket, which will also deploy a satellite throughout its mission.

The Orion capsule is outfitted with sensors to data gathering instruments that will relay all information back to Earth for officials to take into account when preparing for Artemis 2, a crewed mission around the Moon, and Artemis 3, a crewed landing on the Moon. To bring the most immersive experience they can to the launch of Artemis 1, NASA has partnered with Meta and Felix & Paul Studios to livestream the unmanned launch.

China Central Television (CCTV) has shared footage from its ever-growing Tiangong space station, captured using a camera on one of its robotic arms.

The first module launched to make up the Tiangong space station was the Tianhe core module, which entered orbit on April 29th, 2021, and was followed by the Wentian module, which joined Tianhe on July 24th, 2022. Both modules came equipped with their own robotic arm, with Tiangong carrying an arm 33 feet (10 meters) long and Wentian bringing an arm measuring 19.6 feet (6 meters).

The larger of the two arms has a camera, which the China National Space Administration (CNSA) has recently used to inspect the exterior of the space station and "ensure it is ready to move the Wentian lab module from its current docking bay to its permanent dock." In the footage captured by the robot, you can see Earth's ocean and clouds as the station orbits 236 miles (380 kilometers) above the surface.

Three new studies have been published on Mars' terrain in the journals Science and Science Advances.

Researchers from Purdue University have analyzed data from NASA's Perseverance Mars rover, which discovered grains of olivine on Mars' surface, adding some green to the endless red Martian landscape. Known as the Red Planet, scientists expected to find minerals and materials of a similar shade when Perseverance first landed on Mars. However, the rover found something unexpected after landing in the Jezero Crater, which once held a large lake when Mars had liquid water, air, and a magnetic field.

Scientists expected to find sedimentary rocks inside the crater, but instead found many volcanic rocks. Much of the rocks are composed of large grains of olivine, one of Earth's most abundant minerals, which makes up more than half of the upper mantle, and is known for tinting numerous Hawaiian beaches green. The Perseverance rover is examining samples up to nearly 4 billion years old, which have remained almost pristine.

A study on the planet titled "TOI-1452 b: SPIRou and TESS Reveal a Super-Earth in a Temperate Orbit Transiting an M4 Dwarf" has been published in The Astronomical Journal.

Researchers from the University of Montreal have an exoplanet, meaning a planet outside of our solar system, orbiting the TOI-1452 dwarf star, which is part of a binary star system in the Draco constellation, roughly 100 light-years from Earth. The exoplanet is dubbed TOI-1452 b and exists within its host star's habitable zone, where it is just the right temperature for liquid water to exist on its surface.

It is known as a super-Earth because it is about 70% larger than Earth and approximately five times as massive, but with a potentially solid surface. The planet may also mark the first discovery of an ocean planet, as its density is consistent with a world with a very deep ocean. However, it could also be a large, rocky planet with little or no atmosphere.

The director of NASA's Planetary Science Division, Dr. Lori Glaze, announced NASA's rough plans for a mission to Uranus.

Dr. Glaze spoke about the potential Uranus Orbiter and Probe (UOP) mission during a virtual community town hall meeting on August 18th as part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine's decadal survey. The decadal survey is the result of polling the scientific community on what it believes its top research priorities should be, completed every ten years.

Studies may begin as soon as the fiscal year 2023, working to create a spacecraft that would orbit Uranus for several years and potentially a probe to be sent through the planet's atmosphere. Uranus remains one of the least explored parts of our solar system, with the last spacecraft to come close being NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft in 1968, which flew by on its way to interstellar space.

Reports indicate that a former partner of Tesla and SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk, is auctioning off photographs of Musk when he was in college.

According to Daily Mail, the ex-girlfriend of Musk is Jennifer Gwynne, who was in a relationship with Musk for a period of time when both were attending the University of Pennsylvania in the 90s. Gwynne, who is now 48 years old, is living in South Carolina and said that she has decided to auction off photographs of Musk to fund her stepson's college tuition. Speaking to Daily Mail, Gwynne told the publication that her relationship with Musk was "sweet", but that Elon resisted being affectionate.

The never-before-seen photographs showcase a young Elon seemingly doing what every college student does at one point, goofing around in a messy college dorm room with friends over a few drinks. The former partner discussed her thoughts on her ex-boyfriend's current life, saying that she isn't personally a fan of his public persona and that she doesn't believe he enjoys the "high profile" lifestyle. Gwynne went on to say that she doesn't agree with a lot of what Musk says now, while simultaneously acknowledging that "he is brilliant, a once in a multigenerational mind".