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Archive for the ‘space’ category: Page 343

Aug 14, 2022

Curved space robot defies known laws of physics

Posted by in categories: physics, robotics/AI, space

Functioning in curved space, the robot heralds new space locomotive technology possibilities without the use of propellants.


A robot engineered at Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) has done the unthinkable and flouted a steadfast law of motion, suggesting that new laws need to be defined. Such new principles may have applications in new forms of locomotion without propellants.

We’ve all seen the hilarious slapstick gag where the unwitting individual steps on a banana peel, landing comically on their rump. It may not seem like it, but the quip relies on the fact that human locomotion, like all locomotion, is based on Newton’s third law of motion.

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Aug 14, 2022

New Theory Emerges to Explain How the Continents Started Moving Here on Earth

Posted by in category: space

The Pilbara Craton in Western Australia is the backdrop for a new hypothesis explaining how our continents started moving.


Early Earth faced bombardments from Solar System debris. A new theory says these deep impactors set the mantle and continents in motion.

Aug 14, 2022

US Space Force tests robot dogs to patrol Cape Canaveral

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, security, space

The quadrupedal robots are well suited for repetitive tasks.


Mankind’s new best friend is coming to the U.S. Space Force.

The Space Force has conducted a demonstration using dog-like quadruped unmanned ground vehicles (Q-UGVs) for security patrols and other repetitive tasks. The demonstration used at least two Vision 60 Q-UGVs, or “robot dogs,” built by Ghost Robotics and took place at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station on July 27 and 28.

Aug 14, 2022

Astronomers Think They Found the Youngest Planet in the Galaxy

Posted by in category: space

Astronomers may have discovered the youngest planet in our galaxy — a planet so young that it’s still shrouded in its dusty, gaseous building blocks.

Aug 14, 2022

Surprise, Surprise: Subsurface Water On Mars Defies Expectations

Posted by in categories: physics, space

Physics connects seismic data to properties of rocks and sediments. A new analysis of seismic data from NASA’s Mars InSight mission has uncovered a couple of big surprises. The first surprise: the top 300 meters (1000 feet) of the subsurface beneath the landing site near the Martian equator contains little or no ice.

Aug 14, 2022

Artificial intelligence and why astronomers don’t look through a telescope anymore

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, space

With the technological advances in telescope instrumentation and software capabilities, it became necessary to streamline the observation process.

Aug 14, 2022

Russia leaving the ISS could put the station’s future in jeopardy

Posted by in categories: law, policy, space

Over its 23-year lifetime, the station has been an important example of how Russia and the United States can work together despite being former adversaries. This cooperation has been especially significant as the countries’ relationship has deteriorated in recent years. While it remains unclear whether the Russians will follow through with this announcement, it does add significant stress to the operation of the most successful international cooperation in space ever. As a scholar who studies space policy, I think the question now is whether the political relationship has gotten so bad that working together in space has become impossible.

Russia operates six of the 17 modules of the ISS — including Zvezda, which houses the main engine system. This engine is vital to the station’s ability to remain in orbit and also to how it moves out of the way of dangerous space debris. Under the ISS agreements, Russia retains full control and legal authority over its modules.

It is currently unclear how Russia’s withdrawal will play out. Russia’s announcement speaks only to “after 2024.” Additionally, Russia did not say whether it would allow the ISS partners to take control of the Russian modules and continue to operate the station or whether it would require that the modules be shut down completely.

Aug 14, 2022

Mars City: 3 Red Planet resources could forge a critical building material

Posted by in categories: habitats, space

Iron will be key to human self-sufficiency on Mars.


When the first humans reach Mars, they’ll probably live in habitats that were there ahead of time or in habitats made from their landers.

Aug 10, 2022

Super-Earth found ‘skimming’ habitable zone of red dwarf

Posted by in category: space

The discovery of a super-Earth around the red dwarf Ross 508 is reported by astronomers in Japan. Part of the planet’s elliptical orbit takes it within the star’s habitable zone, where liquid water may exist.

Aug 10, 2022

Math error: A new study overturns 100-year-old understanding of color perception

Posted by in categories: computing, mathematics, physics, space

A new study corrects an important error in the 3D mathematical space developed by the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Erwin Schrödinger and others, and used by scientists and industry for more than 100 years to describe how your eye distinguishes one color from another. The research has the potential to boost scientific data visualizations, improve TVs and recalibrate the textile and paint industries.

“The assumed shape of color space requires a paradigm shift,” said Roxana Bujack, a computer scientist with a background in mathematics who creates scientific visualizations at Los Alamos National Laboratory. Bujack is lead author of the paper by a Los Alamos team in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on the mathematics of color perception.

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