Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 89

The Nuclear Regulation Authority within the Japanese government has approved a plan by the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) to dispose of treated radioactive wastewater into the ocean.

TEPCO submitted the plan in December 2021 for gradually releasing the treated wastewater from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the ocean beginning in 2023. The government made the decision last year that the wastewater was to be released as part of the ongoing cleanup and decommission of the plant following the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.

A massive earthquake and tsunami at the time destroyed the plant's cooling systems, leading to the meltdown of three reactors. Water used to cool the damaged reactor cores has become irradiated and been collected and stored across a thousand water tanks on-site, with a capacity of 1.37 million tons that will likely be reached next year.

NASA has outlined the objectives for the Moon to Mars initiative following the early stages of its Artemis mission and is seeking feedback.

A new video posted to NASA's YouTube channel outlines a draft of NASA's objectives for reaching Mars, containing fifty points across four broad categories, including transportation and habitation; Moon and Mars infrastructure; operations; and science. NASA has also providing a document detailing each of these points and defining relevant terms.

NASA's grand plan involves the Artemis missions, which will return astronauts to the Moon, from where the agency can look to make the journey to Mars. With the latest draft of objectives for the Moon to Mars mission, NASA invites industries, academia, international communities, members of the public, and other stakeholders to provide input on the various points outlined. Comments can be submitted here, and are due by the end of May 31st 2022.

The U.K. Health Security Agency (UKHSA) noted six cases in England across London and Newcastle and has warned of potential spread within the community.

The monkeypox viral disease is caused by the monkeypox virus, which belongs to the same family of viruses that causes smallpox. Health officials warned on May 17th that the virus could potentially spread to other countries. On May 18th, cases were reported in Spain and Portugal, with eight potential cases in Spain and five confirmed cases with over a dozen probable cases in Portugal.

Monkeypox is a rare infection that results in symptoms including fever, headache, muscle aches, exhaustion, and swollen lymph nodes. As the infection progresses, rashes appear across the body, resulting in discolored patches of skin, blisters, scabs, and bumps.

Officials have shared images on Facebook of three women posing with the strangely shaped plants and have asked the public to refrain from picking them.

The Cambodian Ministry of Environment has asked the public to stop picking the rare plant species, writing in its Facebook post that what the three women in the included images are doing is "wrong", "and please don't do it again in the future!". LiveScience spoke to Jeremy Holden, a freelance wildlife photographer and the discoverer of the Nepenthes holdenii plant species, and Francois Mey, a botanical illustrator.

The two informed the publication that despite numerous reports of the plant in the photos being Nepenthes holdenii, it was more closely related to Nepenthes bokorensis, which is more widely found across southwest Cambodia. These Nepenthes plants survive by producing nectar that attracts insects that climb inside of the plant and become trapped in digestive fluids.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson spoke at a recent House Appropriations Committee hearing about space-related matters.

The hearing addressed the $26 billion budget request by U.S. President Biden to be allocated to NASA for the 2023 fiscal year, more than has ever been allocated to NASA. During the hearing, Nelson said he believes NASA is "in a space race with China" and that "they've done some impressive stuff," according to this series of tweets quoting Nelson.

However, he followed this up by saying, "yes, they are good at stealing," after citing their rover on Mars and their Tianhe space station. Nelson believes that cybersecurity needs to be taken more seriously in the government and private sector, likely to prevent their technologies from being used by others.

A study on the fusion fuel breakthrough titled "First-Principles Density Limit Scaling in Tokamaks Based on Edge Turbulent Transport and Implications for ITER" has been published in the journal Physical Review Letters.

Physicists from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne (Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, or EPFL) have updated one of the foundational laws governing nuclear fusion research since 1988, the Greenwald limit, named after Martin Greenwald. They have shown that much more hydrogen fuel can safely be used in fusion reactors.

Nuclear fusion (the process of fusing two atomic nuclei, typically of hydrogen, and releasing large amounts of energy) experiments are conducted within reactors called tokamaks. The tokamak is designed to contain the plasma created from the fusion fuel, in this case, hydrogen atoms, which is heated to about ten times the temperature of the sun's core.

New estimations show that the upcoming Jupiter-3 geostationary communications satellite will be the heaviest commercial geostationary satellite ever launched.

Jupiter-3, also known as Echostar 24, is being built by Maxar Technologies for Hughes Network Systems, a subsidiary of EchoStar. The satellite was scheduled to launch at the end of 2022, after initially being planned to launch mid-way through the year, but delays to several Maxar spacecraft, including Jupiter-3, mean that it is now likely to launch in early 2023.

Maxar has also revealed that the satellite's launch weight will be approximately 9,200 kilograms (~20,300 pounds), up from the previous estimation of 5,817 kilograms (~12,825 pounds) at lift-off. The satellite will be the heaviest spacecraft to launch into a geostationary orbit. It will increase broadband capacity for the Americas, Canada, and Mexico, delivering a maximum bandwidth of 500 gigabits per second.

A study on the night-time solar development titled "Thermoradiative Power Conversion from HgCdtTe Photodiodes and Their Current-Voltage Characteristics" has been published in the journal ACS Photonics.

Researchers from the University of New South Wales (UNSW) managed to generate electricity using the energy from heat radiated as infrared light. The device used to generate power is called a thermoradiative diode, a semiconductor device made from materials used in night-vision goggles. Stanford University researchers were able generate electricity with solar panels last month with similar methods.

The process harnesses solar power in a less traditional sense, not directly, but instead from the heat solar energy provides to the environment, which is then re-radiated as infrared radiation. As a proof of concept, though the amount of power generated is relatively small, about 100,000 times less than that produced by a solar panel, the team has made an "unambiguous demonstration of electrical power from a thermoradiative diode."

The end of operations for NASA's InSight (short for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport) Mars lander is due at the end of this year as it continues to lose power.

Since landing on Mars on November 26th, 2018, to measure seismic activity, InSight has remained powered by a pair of solar panels, each measuring about 7 feet (2.2 meters) wide. Its primary science mission was to be achieved within a year on Mars (almost two years on Earth) and having completed it, NASA has extended its mission.

However, InSight's solar panels are slowly accumulating Martian dust on their surfaces, reducing their power output from around 5,000 watt-hours each Martian day (sol) when InSight landed to roughly 500 watt-hours per sol. The InSight team now estimates that it will become inoperative by December 2022. The team will put the lander's robotic arm into its resting position, known as the retirement pose, for the last time later in May.

Elon Musk has had bouts with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in the past, and now he may be about to enter into the ring with them again following Musk's acquisition of Twitter.

In 2013 the SEC ruled that Twitter and other social media platforms are viable ways for publicly traded companies to disclose information that can affect share prices. In 2018, Elon Musk tweeted that he had "funding secured" to take Tesla private, which caused Tesla's share price to skyrocket. The SEC went after Musk for his tweets which eventuated in Musk paying a $20 million fine, giving up his position as chairman of Tesla, and having information about Tesla pre-approved by colleagues at the company before publishing.

Now, an investor who has purchased more than 5% of a company's stock is forced to disclose their position within 10 days of the purchase. This SEC rule is put into place so other investors are aware that a potentially large investor has entered the scene and may be looking to gain a significant position or even take over. Musk waited 21 days to disclose his position of approximately 9.6%, which, when revealed, caused the price of Twitter's stock to skyrocket.

As reported yesterday, the US government conducted a public hearing with top military officials on UFOs, or as officials would prefer them to be called "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP)".

During the hearing, which can be seen in full above, top Pentagon officials spoke to a House panel about UFO encounters and the risk they pose to national security. The hearing comes after a leaked military video of a UFO went viral, which eventuated into a large report on UFOs being released by the US military that stated the US had only tracked 144 encounters with UFOs.

However, there seem to be many more reports since then, as top Pentagon officials said during the hearing that the US military is "approximately 400" on record, a very sharp increase from the 144 recorded between 2004 and 2021. The spike in encounters can be attributed to the reduction in stigma attached to UFO sightings as a result of the 2021 report being released.

The first lunar eclipse of 2022 on the night of May 15th was the longest total lunar eclipse in 33 years.

The full moon spent approximately 85 minutes inside the Earth's umbra and shadow, compared to 96 minutes during a total lunar eclipse in August 1989. May's full moon is known as the Flower Moon, while the reddish appearance taken on by the moon during a total lunar eclipse due to light from the Sun bleeding around the Earth and landing on the moon earns it the moniker Blood Moon.

A Super Moon occurs when a full moon or new moon closely coincides with perigee, meaning the point in the moon's orbit at which it is closest to Earth, giving the moon a larger apparent size in the sky than normal. The culmination of these three factors has given this month's spectacular total lunar eclipse the mouthful of a name that is the Super Flower Blood Moon.

The Lockheed Martin X-59 QueSST (Quiet SuperSonic Technology) supersonic jet is being developed for NASA's Low-Boom Flight Demonstrator project.

Lockheed Martin's team at its Skunk Works facility is working with NASA to develop the experimental supersonic aircraft to address a persistent issue with supersonic flights; the sonic boom. A recent video posted to Lockheed Martin's YouTube channel features team members discussing testing and more on the journey to X-59's first flight.

The X-59 recently returned to Skunk Works in Palmdale, California, after critical ground tests over several months in Lockheed Martin's Ft. Worth facilities in Texas. The ground tests were conducted to ensure the aircraft could withstand the stresses of supersonic flight, meaning speeds of at least Mach 1. When exceeding the speed of sound (Mach 1), aircraft typically produce a loud sonic boom. However, the design of the X-59 is intended to reduce that to a quiet sonic "thump."

A study on the gene editing breakthrough titled "CRISPR-Cas9 editing of the arginine-vasopressin V1a receptor produces paradoxical changes in social behavior in Syrian hamsters" has been published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Researchers from Georgia State University used CRISPR-Cas9 genome-editing technology to remove the expression of the Avpr1a receptor in Syrian hamsters. By removing the genes encoding for Avpr1a, the receptor is no longer made, and vasopressin, which normally binds to that receptor, can no longer influence the social behavior it typically regulates, such as pair bonding, cooperation, communication, dominance, and aggression.

Without the receptors, the hamsters showed higher social communication behavior levels than those with intact receptors. Typical differences in aggressiveness between male and female hamsters were also eliminated, with both displaying high levels of aggression towards members of the same sex.

In what feels like something ripped out of the future -- or maybe out of the multiverse -- Israel's Finance Ministry and the Israel Innovation Authority (IIA) announced they will be testing a new project: an artificial intelligence (AI) floating (yes, floating) system that would generate electricity by tracking the sun.

The new AI-powered floating system is the work of a collaboration between Israeli company Xfloat, which made the system, and Mekorot national water company. The AI system will be floating above the reservoir water, tracking the sun and moving around for the absolute optimal results (power from the sun, onto its solar panels).

Xfloat has designed the system based on machine learning capabilities, sucking in that previous data over time, optimizing its performance continuously. Israel's Finance Ministry and the Israel Innovation Authority (IIA) said that the system has a high power generation capacity and can handle environmental changes and extreme weather.

Elon Musk, the soon-to-be-owner of Twitter, has taken to his personal Twitter account to criticize the social media platforms algorithm.

The SpaceX and Tesla CEO wrote on May 15 that it's very important that Twitter users "fix your Twitter feed". Musk wrote that users are "being manipulated by the algorithm" in ways that the users are unaware of and that users will be able to notice the difference when switching between "Latest tweets" and Home Tweets.

Furthermore, Musk clarified that he isn't suggesting there is "malice in the algorithm", but rather how, under Home Tweets, the algorithm will attempt to show the user what they want to read, which "inadvertently manipulate/amplify your viewpoints without you realizing this is happening." Musk goes on to write that there are bugs in Twitter's code, and to solve these problems around trusting the algorithm, it needs to be made "open source".

Russia's space program recently launched the Angara-1 rocket carrying a "classified payload" to lower-Earth orbit.

According to space journalist Anatoly Zak who recently took to Twitter to announce that the Angara-1 rocket that was launched in April is carrying a "classified payload" that appears to be inactive, resulting in it eventually falling back down to Earth. According to Russian Space Web, on April 22, Russian authorities released several warnings to both air and sea traffic controllers that informed them there was to be a launch near the end of April.

The launch vehicle lifted off on April 29, and according to the publication, the initial launch went according to plan, but the classified military satellite it was carrying never performed any maneuvers to maintain its position in Earth's orbit. Notably, Russian officials inscribed the letter "Z" on the Angara rocket's payload fairing. The "Z" letter is commonly associated with showing support for Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Furthermore, "Z" has been spotted drawn on several Russian vehicles being used in the invasion.

NASA's InSight Mars Lander detected the Mars temblor, or marsquake, on May 4th, 2022, or Sol (Martian day) 1,222 of the lander's mission.

The marsquake clocked in at a magnitude 5 on moment magnitude scale that is used on Earth. The previous record-holder for largest marsquake measured was a magnitude-4.2, which the InSight Lander detected on August 25th, 2021, using its seismometer called the Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure.

Unfortunately, both the InSight Mars Lander and Mars Ingenuity Helicopter are being plagued by Martian dust that is starting to cover their solar panels. The onset of Martian winter and increasing dust levels in the air result in less power being transferred into either machine, resulting in Ingenuity's recent communications blackout, and InSight going into safe mode, powering off but its most essential functions, to hibernate until a later date.

A study on the algae-powered microprocessor titled "Powering a microprocessor by photosynthesis" has been published in the journal Energy & Environmental Science.

The widespread Synechocystis species of non-toxic, blue-green algae has been used by researchers to power a microprocessor by harnessing photosynthesis. The system is about the size of an AA battery, contains some water, and allows ambient light in to facilitate photosynthesis. Photosynthesis generates a small electric current that interacts with an aluminum electrode, in turn powering the microprocessor.

The device managed has managed to run for a year and counting and powers an Arm Cortex M0+ microprocessor, which is found in many Internet of Things (IoT) devices. It was subjected to semi-outdoor conditions with natural light and temperature fluctuations while in a domestic environment.

A study on the revived eyes titled "Revival of light signalling in the postmortem mouse and human retina" has been published in the journal Nature.

Researchers were able to revive function in cells from both mouse and human eyes obtained after death. Stimulating the postmortem retinas with light resulted in them emitting electrical signals known as b-waves, indicative of communication between cells, that are also emitted by living retinas.

After death, not all tissue and cell types within the body become irrecoverable at the same time. Restoring oxygenation and nutrients to eyes from organ donors allowed the researchers to trigger synchronous activity in the retinal neurons. This result raises questions about how we define brain death, which typically requires a loss of synchronous activity among neurons, meaning these retinas weren't necessarily completely dead.