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Category: space – Page 326

“I’m really into planetary defence”: Meet the 13-year-old whose science project could protect Earth from asteroids

Do you ever mesh your other hobbies with the space stuff? Yes. I once turned the results of one of my experiments into a musical. In 2020, during the lockdowns, I put a scientific instrument on my balcony to measure light, sound and pollution before and after the pandemic. I ended up with several graphs and thought, Why not turn these into a musical? So, me and my brother got several musical instruments and played notes according to how high or low each point on the graph was. We actually submitted that to the NASA SpaceApps COVID-19 Challenge and became one of the top six global winners.

Do you think you’ll study space science at university when you’re older? I think so. Either aerospace or astrophysics, or maybe both.

Any other cool projects in the pipeline? Not right now, but I’m getting ready to go to Belgium this September, to represent Canada in the EU Contest for Young Scientists, which is an international science competition. I’ll be able to showcase this project there. But before then, I need to make a 10-page project report with figures, summaries and scientific documents. And I’ll need a poster!

NASA is creating a ChatGPT-like assistant for astronauts

Despite our intrinsic distrust of AI in space taught to us by movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey (“I’m afraid I can’t do that, Dave”), it offers large advantages to both manned and unmanned missions. To that end, NASA is developing a system that will allow astronauts to perform maneuvers, conduct experiments and more using a natural-language ChatGPT-like interface, The Guardian reported.

“The idea is to get to a point where we have conversational interactions with space vehicles and they [are] also talking back to us on alerts, interesting findings they see in the solar system and beyond,” said Dr. Larissa Suzuki, speaking at an IEEE meeting on next-gen space communication. “It’s really not like science fiction anymore.”

NASA aims to deploy the system on its Lunar Gateway, a space station that will orbit the Moon and provide support for NASA’s Artemis mission. It would use a natural language interface that allows astronauts to seek advice on experiments or conduct maneuvers without diving into complex manuals.

Boulder Bonanza! Science and Sampling Attempts at the Onahu Outcrop on Mars

Mars Perseverance Rover struggled to collect samples from a crumbly, potentially conglomerate rock at the Onahu outcrop, before exploring another location, Stone Man Pass. Meanwhile, the rover continues to analyze nearby boulders and progress towards Jezero’s inner rim, home to the anticipated carbonate-rich “margin unit,” in pursuit of insights into Mars’ geological history.

Recently on Mars, Perseverance wrestled with sampling a crumbly rock and continued the mission’s boulder-bonanza!

Perseverance spent 3 weeks exploring the Onahu outcrop, after having previously performed an abrasion named Ouzel Falls. From this abrasion, scientists saw that the rock is most likely a conglomerate worth sampling, but was also likely to be crumbly.

Quantum Puzzle Solved: The Great Mystery of Quantized Vortex Motion

Explaining the interaction between quantized vortices and normal fluids.

Researchers from Osaka Metropolitan University, Florida State University.

Florida State University (Florida State or FSU) is a public space-grant and sea-grant research university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States that was established in 1851. The university comprises 16 separate colleges and more than 110 centers, facilities, labs, and institutes that offer more than 360 programs of study, including professional school programs.

This tiny PC punches way above its weight, and it’s cheaper than you think

No matter the need, these tiny PCs are here to serve. I’ve used many small form factor PCs and most of what I’ve used pales in comparison to the Xulu XR1 Pro. This device is not only the smallest of the tiny PCs I’ve tried, but it’s also the most powerful.

The device itself measures a scant 3.5 × 3.5 inches and is only 2.5 inches tall, making it the smallest AMD Ryzen 7-powered PC ever built. Yes, it’s tiny. But it also offers six USB ports, one USB Type C port, two HDMI ports, and a headphone jack.

As far as price is concerned, the Xulu XR1 Pro will start at around $299 and max out at around $399. So not only does this tiny machine punch above its weight, but it’s also at a price point that makes it even more appealing. Having an AMD Ryzen 7 desktop machine at that price is a bargain…no matter the size.

For such a tiny computer, the Xulu XR1 Pro is a remarkably powerful machine that can serve as a desktop when space is very limited.

Can Humans Survive Long-Term in Deep Space? Maybe

To survive long-term in deep space? The answer is a lukewarm maybe, according to a new theory that outlines the intricate challenges of maintaining gravity and oxygen, securing water, cultivating food, and managing waste while being distant from Earth.

Dubbed the Pancosmorio theory – a word coined to mean “all world limit” – it was described in a paper published in Frontiers in Astronomy and Space Sciences.

“For humans to sustain themselves and all of their technology, infrastructure, and society in space, they need a self-restoring, Earth-like, natural ecosystem to back them up,” said co-author Morgan Irons, a doctoral student conducting research with Johannes Lehmann, professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science at Cornell University. Her work focuses on soil organic carbon persistence under Earth’s gravity and varying gravity conditions. “Without these kinds of systems, the mission fails.”

NASA Hack Squeezes More Time Out of Dying Voyager 2 Probe

It turns out that reports of its death were greatly exaggerated. NASA says it’s figured out a way to extend the mission of its interstellar Voyager 2 probe by another three years.

And that’s no easy feat, considering the probe has been screaming through the cosmos since 1977 and is currently more than 12 billion miles from Earth.

The probe recently switched to its backup power reserves, which were originally set aside as part of an onboard safety mechanism, according to an update by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

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