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Mars Base

NASA beams Mona Lisa to Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter at the moon (w/ video) - 0 views

phys.org/...lisa-lunar-reconnaissance.html

scibyte78

shared by Mars Base on 18 Jan 13 - No Cached
  • To clean up transmission errors introduced by Earth's atmosphere (left), Goddard scientists applied Reed-Solomon error correction (right), which is commonly used in CDs and DVDs.
  • Typical errors include missing pixels (white) and false signals (black). The white stripe indicates a brief period when transmission was paused
  • As part of the first demonstration of laser communication with a satellite at the moon, scientists with NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) beamed an image of the Mona Lisa to the spacecraft from Earth.
  • ...19 more annotations...
  • he iconic image traveled nearly 240,000 miles in digital form from the Next Generation Satellite Laser Ranging (NGSLR) station at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., to the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter (LOLA) instrument on the spacecraft.
  • By transmitting the image piggyback on laser pulses that are routinely sent to track LOLA's position, the team achieved simultaneous laser communication and tracking.
  • This is the first time anyone has achieved one-way laser communication at planetary distances
  • "In the near future, this type of simple laser communication might serve as a backup for the radio communication that satellites use
  • In the more distant future, it may allow communication at higher data rates than present radio links can provide
  • Typically, satellites that go beyond Earth orbit use radio waves for tracking and communication
  • LRO is the only satellite in orbit around a body other than Earth to be tracked by laser as well.
  • Precise timing was the key to transmitting the image
  • divided the Mona Lisa image into an array of 152 pixels by 200 pixels
  • Every pixel was converted into a shade of gray, represented by a number between zero and 4,095.
  • Each pixel was transmitted by a laser pulse, with the pulse being fired in one of 4,096 possible time slots during a brief time window allotted for laser tracking
  • he complete image was transmitted at a data rate of about 300 bits per second.
  • The laser pulses were received by LRO's LOLA instrument, which reconstructed the image based on the arrival times of the laser pulses from Earth
  • This was accomplished without interfering with LOLA's primary task of mapping the moon's elevation and terrain and NGSLR's primary task of tracking LRO.
  • The success of the laser transmission was verified by returning the image to Earth using the spacecraft's radio telemetry system.
  • Turbulence in Earth's atmosphere introduced transmission errors even when the sky was clear.
  • To overcome these effects,
  • employed Reed-Solomon coding, which is the same type of error-correction code commonly used in CDs and DVDs.
  • The next step after LLCD is the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD), NASA's first long-duration optical communications mission.
Mars Base

Chipmaker Races to Save Stephen Hawking's Speech as His Condition Deteriorates: Sc... - 0 views

www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm

scibyte80 StephenHawking

shared by Mars Base on 01 Feb 13 - No Cached
  • Renowned physicist Stephen Hawking has long relied on technology to help him connect with the outside world despite the degenerative motor neuron disease he has battled for the past 50 years
  • a highly respected computer scientist indicated at last week’s International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that he and his team may be close to a breakthrough that could boost the rate at which the physicist communicates, which has fallen to a mere one word per minute in recent years.
  • For the past decade Hawking has used a voluntary twitch of his cheek muscle to compose words and sentences one letter at a time that are expressed through a speech-generation device connected to his computer.
  • ...25 more annotations...
  • Each tweak stops a cursor that continuously scans text on a screen facing the scientist.
  • Intel chief technology officer
  • noted that Hawking can actually make a number of other facial expressions as well that might also be used to speed up the rate at which the physicist conveys his thoughts
  • Even providing Hawking with two inputs would give him the ability to communicate using Morse code
  • Intel has since the late 1990s supplied Hawking with technology to help the scientist express himself
  • The latest chapter in their work together began in late 2011 when Hawking reached out to
  • inform
  • the Intel co-founder and father of Moore’s law that the physicist’s ability to compose text was slowing and inquiring whether Intel could help.
  • met with Hawking early last year around the time of the latter’s 70th birthday celebration in Cambridge, where the Intel CTO was one of the speakers
  • After meeting with Hawking
  • he wondered whether his company’s processor technology could restore the scientist’s ability to communicate at five words per minute, or even increase that rate to 10
  • Intel is now working on a system that can use Hawking’s cheek twitch as well as mouth and eyebrow movements to provide signals to his computer
  • built a new, character-driven interface in modern terms that includes a better word predictor
  • company is also exploring the use of facial-recognition software to create a new user interface for Hawking that would be quicker than selecting individual letters or words
  • A black box beneath his wheelchair contains an audio amplifier, voltage regulators and a USB hardware key that receives the input from an infrared sensor on Hawking’s eyeglasses, which detects changes in light as he twitches his cheek
  • current setup includes a tablet PC with a forward-facing Webcam that he can use to place Skype calls
  • A hardware voice synthesizer sits in another black box on the back of the chair and receives commands from the computer via a USB-based serial port
  • Intel’s work with Hawking is part of the company’s broader research into smart gadgets as well as assistive technologies for the elderly
  • The key to advancing smart devices—which have been at a plateau over the past five or six years—is context awareness
  • Devices will really get to know us the way a friend would, understanding how our facial expressions reflect our mood
  • Intel’s plan for identifying personal context requires a combination of hardware sensors—camera, accelerometer, microphone, thermometer and others
  • with software that can check one’s personal calendar, social networks and Internet browsing habits, to name a few.
  • use this [information] to reason your current context and what's important at any given time [and deliver] pervasive assistance
  • One approach to “pervasive assistance” is the Magic Carpet, a rug that Intel and GE developed with embedded sensors and accelerometers that can record a person’s normal routine and even their gait, sounding an alert when deviations are detected.
  • Such assistance will anticipate our needs, letting us know when we are supposed to be at an appointment and even reminding us to carry enough cash when running certain errands
Mars Base

Exotic material shows promise as flexible, transparent electrode - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...ble-transparent-electrode.html

scibyte37 electronics

shared by Mars Base on 08 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • An international team of scientists with roots at SLAC and Stanford has shown that ultra-thin sheets of an exotic material remain transparent and highly conductive even after being deeply flexed 1,000 times and folded and creased like a piece of paper.
  • first practical applications: flexible, transparent electrodes for solar cells, sensors and optical communications devices.
  • basic structural unit for bismuth selenide is a five-layer sandwich made up of alternating single-atom sheets of selenium (orange) and bismuth (purple).
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • stacked on top of each other as thicker samples are made
  • selenium-selenium bonds between the units are weak
  • overall material to flex durably without being damaged
  • researchers made and tested samples of a compound in which sheets of bismuth and selenium, each just one atom thick, alternate to form five-layer units. The bonds between the units are weak, allowing the overall material to flex while retaining its durability
  • topological insulator
  • the material conducts electricity only on its surface while its interior remains insulating
  • it is an exceptionally good electrical conductor – as good as gold
  • bismuth selenide is transparent to infrared light, which we know as heat
  • about half the solar energy that hits the Earth comes in the form of  infrared light, few of today’s solar cells are able to collect it
  • transparent electrodes on the surfaces of most cells are either too fragile or not transparent or conducting enough
  • experiments also showed that bismuth selenide does not degrade significantly in humid environments or when exposed to oxygen treatments that are common in manufacturing.
  • bismuth selenide may be useful in communications devices. This material could also improve infrared sensors common in scientific equipment and aerospace systems.”
Mars Base

An Unexpected Ending for Deep Impact - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...xpected-ending-for-deep-impact

scibyte103 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 21 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • After almost 9 years in space
  • July 4th impact and subsequent flyby of a comet, an additional comet flyby, and the return of approximately 500,000 images of celestial objects
  • NASA’s Deep Impact/EPOXI mission has officially been brought to a close.
  • ...22 more annotations...
  • team at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has reluctantly pronounced the mission at an end after being unable to communicate with the spacecraft for over a month
  • The last communication with the probe was Aug. 8
  • journeyed a total of about 4.7 billion miles (7.58 billion kilometers).
  • Launched in January 2005
  • the spacecraft first traveled about 268 million miles (431 million kilometers) to the vicinity of comet Tempel 1.
  • On July 3, 2005, the spacecraft deployed an impactor into the path of comet to essentially be run over by its nucleus on July 4
  • caused material from below the comet’s surface to be blasted out into space
  • examined by the telescopes and instrumentation of the flyby spacecraft
  • in late December 2007 to put it on course to encounter another comet, Hartley 2 in November 2010
  • Sixteen days after that comet encounter, the Deep Impact team placed the spacecraft on a trajectory to fly back past Eart
  • The spacecraft’s extended mission
  • the successful flyby of comet Hartley 2 on Nov. 4, 2010
  • Along the way, it also observed six different stars to confirm the motion of planets orbiting them
  • took images and data of the Earth, the Moon and Mars
  • data helped to confirm the existence of water on the Moon, and attempted to confirm the methane signature in the atmosphere of Mars
  • It took images of comet ISON this year and collected early images of comet ISON in June
  • After losing contact with the spacecraft last month, mission controllers spent several weeks trying to uplink commands to reactivate its onboard systems
  • Although the exact cause of the loss is not known
  • analysis has uncovered a potential problem with computer time tagging that could have led to loss of control for Deep Impact’s orientation.
  • That would then affect the positioning of its radio antennas, making communication difficult
  • its solar arrays, which would in turn prevent the spacecraft from getting power
  • allow cold temperatures to ruin onboard equipment, essentially freezing its battery and propulsion systems.
Mars Base

Tiny Satellites' Big Mission: Going Beyond Earth Orbit | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/satellites-head-for-space.html

scibyte85 cubesat

shared by Mars Base on 01 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • Two CubeSats, designed by NASA's JPL and three university partners, are soon to go where no CubeSats have gone before: beyond Earth orbit.
  • The space agency’s twin
  • satellites,
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • , will be the first CubeSats to leave Earth's orbit for interplanetary space.
  • CubeSats are tiny satellites, some no bigger than four inches (10 cm) on each side, sent into orbit as secondary payloads on other launch vehicles
  • If the interplanetary test launch succeeds, CubeSats could someday blanket the solar system, conducting cheap, high-risk missions to comets, asteroids, moons and planets
  • Just where the pioneering CubeSats will go is still unclear, however, since it’s not known yet which model rocket will be used for launch
  • The first mission will be basically an escape trajectory
  • he rocket's going to send us in some unknown direction
  • Lacking much propulsion or scientific instrumentation, the INSPIRE craft are a test of whether tiny machines can survive the harsh environment of space.
  • The INSPIRE project has been approved by NASA to launch sometime between 2014 and 2016, but a specific launch vehicle hasn't been selected.
  • One of the challenges of the project is figuring how the tiny satellites will communicate with Earth.
  • CubeSats are far cheaper than a traditional space mission but they lack room for complex communications systems or large power sources.
  • As we head away from Earth, we're talking about using much larger antennas" to communicate with the low-powered craf
  • Furthermore, once a spacecraft leaves the protective magnetic field surrounding Earth, it's at risk of failure from solar radiation
  • Traditional satellites are built with more expensive "radiation-hardened" components
  • satellites are instead built to respond to a shut-down command from Earth if space weather systems detect an oncoming solar flare
Mars Base

ESTCube-1 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - 0 views

en.wikipedia.org/ESTCube-1

scibyte86 ESTCube

shared by Mars Base on 13 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • scheduled to be launched to orbit in second half of 2013
  • Student Satellite is an educational project that university and high school students can participate in
  • The CubeSat standard for nanosatellites was followed during the engineering of ESTCube-1, resulting in a 10x10x11.35 cm cube, with a volume of 1 liter and a mass of 1.048 kg.
  • ...44 more annotations...
  • According to the CubeSat standard there are three different sized CubeSats corresponding to size 1U, 2U and 3U. Base side lengths are the same but height is 2 to 3 times bigger than 1U CubeSats
  • Mass is also set in CubeSat standard, the highest possible mass for 1U CubeSat is 1300 grams, 2U CubeSat 2600 grams and 3U CubeSat 4000 grams
  • CubeSat base side length must be 100.0±0.1 millimeters and satellite height must be 113.5±0.1 mm
  • the Estonian satellite
  • a 1U CubeSat
  • Although
  • its main purpose was to educate students, the satellite does have a scientific purpose.
  • On board of the satellite is an electric solar wind sail (e-sail) which was created by a Finnish scientist Pekka Janhunen
  • it is the first real experimentation of the e-sail
  • 10 meters of e-sail 50 to 20 micrometers thick wire of high-technology structure so-called Heytether will be deployed from the satellite.
  • The deployment of the Heytether can be detected by decrease of the satellite's speed of rotation or by a on-board camera
  • To control the loaded solar wind sail elements interaction with the plasma surrounding the earth and the effect it has on the spacecraft spinning speed the spacecraft has two on-board nanotechnologic electron emitters/gun
  • The electron emitters are connected to the e-sail element and by shooting out electrons it loads the e-sail element positively to 500 volts
  • The positive ions in the plasma push the e-sail element and have an influence on the satellites rotation speed
  • The effect of the e-sail is measured by the change in rotation speed
  • The camera is used to take a picture of Earth and the successfully deployed Heytether. [edit]
  • ESTCube-1 will be sent to orbit by the European Space Agency's rocket Vega in spring of 2013
  • Start in spring of 2013
  • Half an hour after the satellites deployment from the start capsule satellites antennas will be opened and radio transmitter and important subsystems will be switched on
  • First days or weeks will be used to test the satellite and set it to work on full capacity.
  • Orienting the satellite so the on-board camera will be faced to earth
  • trying to take a picture of Estonia
  • Rotating the satellite on an axis with a speed of 1 revolution per second
  • E-sail element deployment from the satellite by a centrifugal force and confirming the deployment via the on-board camera
  • Activating the electron emitter and loading the e-sail
  • Measuring the e-sails and Lorentz force by satellites revolutions per second
  • If possible using the negatively charged e-sail to take the satellite off orbit and burn it in the earths atmosphere
  • If everything goes perfect the mission can be completed within a few weeks to a month
  • Lifespan of the satellite
  • Measurements and weight
  • Scientific purpose
  • Communicating with the satellite
  • held by two International Amateur Radio Unions three registered frequencies
  • Periodic but very slow communication is done on a telegraphic signal on a frequency of 437.250 MHz
  • the most important satellite parameters are transmitted every 3 to 5 minutes
  • For fast connections FSK-modulation radio signal on a frequency of 437.505 MHz with a 9600 baud connection speed and AX.25 standard is used.
  • Somewhat slow connection speed is caused by the usage of amateur radio frequencies which allow a maximum of 25 kiloherz bandwidth
  • Fast connection is used only when the satellite has been given a specific
  • Using the GFSK-modulation maximum possible connection speed is 19,200 bits per second
  • Software
  • FreeRTOS on the satellite's Command and Data Handling System and camera module
  • TinyOS on the satellite's communication module
  • Financing and costs
  • Cheapest possibility to send a satellite onto orbit is offered by European Space Agency. Because Estonia is an associated member of ESA most of the launch expenses (about 70,000 euros) will be covered from Estonian member fee for educational expenses. With the launch total expenses for the project are approximately 100,000 euros.
Mars Base

How the Air Force and SpaceX Saved Dragon from Doom - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...-spacex-saved-dragon-from-doom

scibyte89 dragon

shared by Mars Base on 04 Apr 13 - No Cached
  • Barely 11 minutes after I witnessed the spectacular March 1 blastoff of the Dragon atop the SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida
  • contact had been lost
  • Right after spacecraft separation in low Earth orbit , a sudden and unexpected failure of the Dragon’s critical thrust pods had prevented three out of four from initializing and firing
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • The oxidizer pressure was low in three tanks. And the propulsion system is required to orient the craft for two way communication and to propel the Dragon to the orbiting lab complex
  • The problem was a very tiny change to the check valves that serve the oxidizer tanks
  • Three of the check valves were actually different from the prior check valves that had flown – in a very tiny way. Because of the tiny change they got stuck
  • able to write some new software in real time and upload that to Dragon to build pressure upstream of the check valves and then released that pressure- to give it a kind of a kick
  • that got the valves unstuck and then they worked well
  • difficulty communicating with the spacecraft because it was in free drift in orbit
  • worked closely with the Air Force to get higher intensity, more powerful dishes to communicate with the spacecraft and upload the software
  • there had been a small design change to the check valves by the supplier
  • supplier had made mistakes that we didn’t catch
  • You would need a magnifying glass to see the difference
  • SpaceX had run the new check valves through a series of low pressurization systems tests and they worked well and didn’t get stuck. But SpaceX had failed to run the functional tests at higher pressures
  • SpaceX will revert to the old check valves and run tests to make sure this failure doesn’t happen again
Mars Base

SpaceX's First Mission to the Space Station: How It Will Work | Dragon COTS 2/3 Flight ... - 0 views

www.space.com/agon-space-station-flight.html

scibyte47 SpaceX iss PrivateSpaceTravel

shared by Mars Base on 16 May 12 - No Cached
  • SpaceX's unmanned Dragon capsule is due to deliver food, supplies and science experiments
  • SpaceX is one of two companies with NASA contracts for robotic cargo delivery flights (Virginia's Orbital Technologies Corp. is the other), but is the first to actually try a launch
  • Here's how the robotic mission is expected to play out:
  • ...50 more annotations...
  • Step 1: Launch
  • from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida. SpaceX has use of the facility's Space Launch Complex 40
  • The initial ascent is powered by Falcon 9's first stage, consisting of nine SpaceX Merlin 1C rocket engines
  • Step 2: Main Engine Cut Off/Stage Separation
  • At a little before 180 seconds into the flight, the Falcon 9's first stage engines will cut off, and the first stage will drop off, falling back to Earth
  • the booster's second stage engines should start, further propelling the vehicle into orbit.
  • Step 3: Payload Separation
  • Around 9 minutes into the flight, the Dragon capsule should separate from Falcon 9's second stage and orbit on its own
  • capsule will deploy its solar arrays to start soaking up energy from the sun
  • Dragon is on its own and must maneuver using its onboard thrusters
  • Step 4: Orbital Checkouts
  • Dragon will begin a series of checkouts to make sure it's functioning as designed and ready to meet up with the station
  • test out its abort system to prove it can terminate its activities and move away from the space station if something goes wrong.
  • demonstrate its performance in free drift phase, with thrusters inhibited
  • Teams on the ground will lead the vehicle through tests of
  • Absolute GPS (AGPS) system, which uses global positioning system satellites to determine its location in space
  • Step 5: Fly-Under
  • fire its thrusters to perform a fly-under of the International Space Station
  • to 1.5 miles (2.5 kilometers) below the outpost
  • make radio contact with the station using a system called the COTS Ultra?high frequency Communication Unit to communicate.
  • Dragon will also test a secondary locator system called the relative GPS system, which uses the spacecraft's position relative to the space station to establish its coordinates
  • the six-person crew inside the orbiting laboratory will be monitoring their new visitor
  • use a crew command panel onboard the station to communicate with the capsule and send it a command to turn on a strobe light.
  • After completing the fly-under, Dragon will loop out in front, above and then behind the space station to position itself for docking.
  • Step 6: Rendezvous
  • during Dragon's fourth day of flight, the spacecraft will fire its thrusters again to bring it within 1.5 miles (2.5 kilometers) of the space station
  • there, NASA's Mission Control team in Houston will run through a "go-no go" call to confirm all teams are ready for rendezvous
  • If everyone is "go," Dragon will inch closer, to about 820 feet (250 meters) away from the space station.
  • series of final checkouts will be performed to make sure all of Dragon's location and navigation systems are accurate
  • If all looks good, Dragon's SpaceX control team on the ground will command the vehicle to approach the space station
  • When it reaches 720 feet (220 meters), the astronauts onboard the outpost will command the capsule to halt.
  • After another series of "go-no go" checks
  • approach to 656 feet (200 meters), and then 98 feet (30 meters), and finally 32 feet (10 meters), the capture point.
  • Step 7: Docking
  • Mission Control will tell the space station crew they are "go" for capturing Dragon
  • astronaut Don Pettit will use the station's robotic arm to reach out and grab Dragon, pulling it in to the bottom side of the lab's Harmony node, and then attaching it.
  • The next day, after more checkouts, the crew will open the hatch between Dragon and the station.
  • Over the coming weeks, the astronauts will spend about 25 hours unpacking the 1,014 pounds (460 kilograms) of cargo that Dragon delivers
  • none of the cargo is critical (since this is a test flight),
  • capsule will arrive bearing food, water, clothing and supplies for the crew.
  • Step 8: Undocking
  • Dragon is due to spend about 18 days docked at the International Space Station.
  • the station astronauts will use the robotic arm to maneuver the capsule out to about 33 feet (10 meters) away, then release it. Dragon will then use its thrusters to fly a safe distance away from the laboratory.
  • Step 9: Re-entry
  • About four hours after departing the space station, Dragon will fire its engines to make what's called a de-orbit burn
  • will set the capsule on a course for re-entry through Earth's atmosphere
  • spacecraft is equipped with a heat shield to protect it from the fiery temperatures of its 7-minute re-entry flight.
  • Step 10: Landing
  • due to splash down in the Pacific Ocean to end its mission
  • There, recovery crews will be waiting to collect the capsule about 250 miles (450 kilometers) off the West Coast of the United States
  • Mars Base on 21 May 12
     
    Mission Overview
Mars Base

NASA - NASA Researchers Discover Ancient Microbes in Antarctic Lake - 0 views

www.nasa.gov/...12-408_Lake_Vida_Microbes.html

scibyte73 AntarcticLake

shared by Mars Base on 01 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • In one of the most remote lakes of Antarctica, nearly 65 feet beneath the icy surface, scientists
  • , have uncovered a community of bacteria
  • one of Earth's darkest, saltiest and coldest habitats
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • increase our limited knowledge of how life can sustain itself in these extreme environments on our own planet and beyond.
  • Lake Vida, the largest of several unique lakes found in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, contains no oxygen, is mostly frozen and possesses the highest nitrous oxide levels of any natural water body on Earth
  • approximately six times saltier than seawater
  • average temperature is minus 8 degrees Fahrenheit
  • the brine harbors a surprisingly diverse and abundant variety of bacteria that survive without a current source of energy from the sun
  • Previous studies of Lake Vida dating back to 1996 indicate the brine and its inhabitants have been isolated from outside influences for more than 3,000 years.
  • the best analog we have for possible ecosystems in the subsurface waters of Saturn's moon Enceladus and Jupiter's moon Europa
  • collaborators
  • developed stringent protocols and specialized equipment for their 2005 and 2010 field campaigns to sample from the lake brine while avoiding contaminating the pristine ecosystem
  • expands our knowledge of environmental limits for life and helps define new niches of habitability
  • To sample unique environments such as this, researchers must work under secure, sterile tents on the lake's surface
  • The tents kept the site and equipment clean as researchers drilled ice cores, collected samples of the salty brine residing in the lake ice and assessed the chemical qualities of the water and its potential for harboring and sustaining life
  • analyses suggest chemical reactions between the brine and the underlying iron-rich sediments generate nitrous oxide and molecular hydrogen
  • may provide the energy needed to support the brine's diverse microbial life.
  • Additional research is under way to analyze the abiotic, chemical interactions between the Lake Vida brine and its sediment
  • investigating the microbial community by using different genome sequencing approaches
Mars Base

Mars Science Laboratory: Computer Swap on Curiosity Rover - 0 views

mars.jpl.nasa.gov/...index.cfm

scibyte84 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 01 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • 02.28.2013
  • The ground team for NASA's Mars rover Curiosity has switched the rover to a redundant onboard computer in response to a memory issue on the computer that had been active
  • intentional swap at about 2:30 a.m. PST today (Thursday, Feb. 28) put the rover
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • "safe mode."
  • , into
  • safe mode to operational status over the next few days and is troubleshooting the condition that affected operations
  • The condition is related to a glitch in flash memory linked to the other, now-inactive, computer.
  • switched computers to get to a standard state from which to begin restoring routine operations
  • Like many spacecraft
  • Curiosity carries a pair of redundant main computers in order to have a backup available if one fails
  • Each of the computers, A-side and B-side, also has other redundant subsystems linked to just that computer
  • Curiosity is now operating on its B-side, as it did during part of the flight from Earth to Mars. It operated on its A-side from before the August 2012 landing through Wednesday.
  • While
  • resuming operations on the B-side, we are also working to determine the best way to restore the A-side as a viable backup
  • The spacecraft remained in communications at all scheduled communication windows on Wednesday, but it did not send recorded data, only current status information.
  • status information revealed that the computer had not switched to the usual daily "sleep" mode when planned
  • Diagnostic work in a testing simulation at JPL indicates the situation involved corrupted memory at an A-side memory location used for addressing memory files
  • Scientific investigations by the rover were suspended Wednesday
  • Resumption of science investigations is anticipated within several days
Mars Base

A new way to lose weight? Study shows that changes to gut microbiota may play role in w... - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...-gut-microbiota-role-loss.html

scibyte88 WeightLoss

shared by Mars Base on 28 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • by colonizing mice with the altered microbial community, the mice were able to maintain a lower body fat, and lose weight – about 20% as much as they would if they underwent surgery
  • New research
  • has found that the gut microbes of mice undergo drastic changes following gastric bypass surgery
  • ...28 more annotations...
  • In some ways we were biasing the results against weight loss
  • the mice used in the study hadn't been given a high-fat, high-sugar diet to increase their weight beforehand
  • The question is whether we might have seen a stronger effect if they were on a different diet
  • finding ways to manipulate microbial populations to mimic those effects could become a valuable new tool to address obesity
  • study suggests that the specific effects of gastric bypass on the microbiota contribute to its ability to cause weight loss
  • need to learn a good deal more about the mechanisms by which a microbial population changed by gastric bypass exert its effects,
  • then we need to learn if we can produce these effects – either the microbial changes or the associated metabolic changes – without surgery
  • it may be years before they could be replicated in humans, and that such microbial changes shouldn't be viewed as a way to lose
  • pounds without going to the gym
  • the technique may one day offer hope to dangerously obese people who want to lose weight without going through the trauma of surgery.
  • may not be that we will have a magic pill that will work for everyone who's slightly overweight
  • But if we can, at a minimum, provide some alternative to gastric bypass surgery that produces similar effects, it would be a major advance
  • While there had been hints that the microbes in the gut might change after bypass surgery, the speed and extent of the change came as a surprise to the research team
  • In earlier experiments, researchers had shown that the guts of both lean and obese mice are populated by varying amounts of two types of bacteria
  • When mice undergo gastric bypass surgery, however, it "resets the whole picture
  • those changes occurred within a week of the surgery, and weren't short-lived – the altered gut microbial community remained stable for months afterward
  • the results may hold out the hope for weight loss without surgery
  • future studies are needed to understand exactly what is behind the weight loss seen in mice
  • A major gap in our knowledge is the underlying mechanism linking microbes to weight loss
  • certain microbes
  • found at higher abundance after surgery,
  • think those are good targets for beginning to understand what's taking place
  • the answer may not be the specific types of microbes, but a by-product they excrete.
  • In addition to changes in the microbes found in the gut, researchers found changes in the concentration of certain short-chain fatty acids
  • Other studies
  • have suggested that those molecules may be critical in signaling to the host to speed up metabolism, or not to store excess calories as fat.
  • hope to continue to explore those questions
  • such studies will allow us to understand how host/microbial interactions in general can influence the outcome of a given diet
Mars Base

Neuro researchers sharpen our understanding of memories - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...05-neuro-sharpen-memories.html

scibyte45 brain memories

shared by Mars Base on 01 May 12 - No Cached
  • Scientists now have a better understanding of how precise memories are formed
  • these findings could help us to better understand memory impairments in neurodegenerative disorders like Alzheimer's disease
  • study looks at the cells in our brains, or neurons, and how they work together as a group to form memories
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • neurons are classified into two groups according to the type of chemical they produce: excitatory, who produce chemicals that increase communication between neurons, and inhibitory, who have the opposite effect, decreasing communication
  • Scientists knew that inhibitory cells enable us to refine our memories, to make them specific to a precise set of information
  • findings explain for the first time how this happens at the molecular and cell levels
  • very little research has been done on inhibitory neurons, partly because they are very difficult to study
  • In the laboratory, we simulated the formation of a new memory by using chemicals
  • measured the electrical activity within the network of cells
  • cells where we had removed CREB, we saw that the strength of the electrical connections was much weaker
  • scientists found that a factor called "CREB" plays a key role in adjusting gene expression and the strength of synapses in inhibitory neurons
  • when we increased the presence of CREB, the connections were stronger
  • This new understanding of the chemical functioning of the brain may one day lead to new treatments
  • we are unfortunately many years away from developing new treatments from this information."
Mars Base

Practicing music for only few years in childhood helps improve adult brain: research - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...ars-childhood-adult-brain.html

scibyte60 music

shared by Mars Base on 22 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • A little music training in childhood goes a long way in improving how the brain function
  • researchers for the first time have directly examined what happens after children stop playing a musical instrument after only a few years
  • Compared to peers with no musical training, adults with one to five years of musical training as children had enhanced brain responses to complex sounds, making them more effective at pulling out the
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • lowest frequency in sound
  • crucial for speech and music perception, allowing recognition of sounds in complex and noisy auditory environments.
  • musical training as children makes better listeners later in life
  • the study suggests that short-term music lessons may enhance lifelong listening and learning
  • For the study, young adults with varying amounts of past musical training were tested by measuring electrical signals from the auditory brainstem in response to eight complex sounds ranging in pitch
  • Forty-five adults were grouped into three
  • matched groups based on histories of musical instruction
  • One group had no musical instruction
  • another had 1 to 5 years
  • the other had to 6 to 11 years
  • Both musically trained groups began instrumental practice around age 9
  • musical training during childhood led to more robust neural processing of sounds later in life
  • Prior research on highly trained musicians and early bilinguals revealed that enhanced brainstem responses to sound are associated with heightened auditory perception, executive function and auditory communication skills.
  • we infer that a few years of music lessons also confer advantages in how one perceives and attends to sounds in everyday communication situations, such as noisy restaurants
Mars Base

Researches find poop-throwing by chimps is a sign of intelligence - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...owing-chimps-intelligence.html

scibyte24

shared by Mars Base on 01 Dec 11 - No Cached
  • researchers studying such behavior have come to the conclusion that throwing feces, or any object really, is actually a sign of high ordered behavior
  • they are the only other species besides humans that regularly throw things with a clear target in mind
  • watching chimps in action for several years and comparing their actions with scans of their brains to see if there were any correlations between those chimps that threw a lot
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • those that didn’t or whether they’re accuracy held any deeper meaning
  • chimps that both threw more and were more likely to hit their targets showed heightened development in the motor cortex
  • more connections between it and the Broca’s area, which they say is an important part of speech in humans
  • Such findings led the term to suggest that the ability to throw is, or was, a precursor to speech development in human beings
  • those that could throw better also appeared to be better communicators within their group
  • better throwing chimps didn’t appear to posses any more physical prowess than other chimps
  • throwing didn’t develop as a means of hunting, but as a form of communication within groups
  • throwing stuff at someone else became a form of self expression
Mars Base

Babies Lip-read Before Talking - Science News - 0 views

www.sciencenews.org/...Babies_lip-read_before_talking

scibyte30 babies

shared by Mars Base on 20 Jan 12 - No Cached
  • infants start babbling at around age 6 months in preparation for talking
  • shift from focusing on adults’ eyes to paying special attention to speakers’ mouths
  • tots become able to blurt out words and simple statements at age 1, they go back to concentrating on adults’ eyes
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • babbling babies match up what adults say with how they say
  • budding talkers can afford to look for communication signals in a speakers’ eyes
  • tested 179 infants from English-speaking families at age 4, 6, 8 or 12 months
  • devices tracked where babies looked when shown videos of women speaking English or a foreign language
  • also report that on average, infants’ pupils increasingly dilated between ages 8 months and 1 year in response to Spanish speakers, a sign of surprise at encountering unfamiliar speech
  • By 2 years of age, children with autism avoid eye contact and focus on speakers’ mouths
  • new findings raise the possibility of identifying kids headed for this developmental disorder even earlier
  • hasn’t yet been demonstrated that children who continue to look at the mouths of native-language speakers after age 1 develop autism or other communication problems more frequently than those who shift to looking at speakers’ eyes
Mars Base

Writing in cursive with your eyes only - 0 views

medicalxpress.com/...2012-07-cursive-eyes.html

scibyte56 communication

shared by Mars Base on 27 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • A new technology
  • might allow people who have almost completely lost the ability to move their arms or legs to communicate freely
  • eye-writing technology tricks the neuromuscular machinery into doing something that is usually impossible: to voluntarily produce smooth eye movements in arbitrary directions
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • could be of great benefit for people deprived of limb movements, such as those with Lou Gehrig's disease (also known as ALS), the researchers say. It might also help to improve eye movement control in people with certain conditions such as dyslexia or ADHD and/or for experts, such as athletes or surgeons, whose activities strongly rely on eye movements
  • In everyday life, smooth pursuit eye movement is used to track moving targets
  • fact our eyes never cease to move
  • normally impossible to control those movements smoothly in any direction.
  • got a hint that smooth eye movements just might be possible in a completely accidental way
  • technology relies on changes in contrast to trick the eyes into the perception of motion
  • now working on a better version of his eye writer, and tests with ALS patients should start next year
  • He was moving his own eyes in front of an unusual visual display in his lab and discovered that it produced some odd effects. For one thing, he could see his own eye movements. With a little practice, he gradually discovered that he could control those eye movements, too.
Mars Base

Mars Science Laboratory: Curiosity Performs Warm Reset - 0 views

mars.jpl.nasa.gov/...index.cfm

scibyte109 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 11 Nov 13 - No Cached
  • NASA's Mars rover Curiosity experienced an unexpected software reboot (also known as a warm reset)
  • (11/7/13
  • during a communications pass as it was sending engineering and science data to the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, for later downlinking to Earth
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • occurred about four-and-half hours after new flight software had been temporarily loaded into the rover's memory
  • At the time the event occurred, Curiosity was in the middle of a scheduled, week-long flight software update and checkout activity
  • A warm reset is executed by flight software when it identifies a problem with one of its operations
  • The reset restarts the flight software into its initial state. Since the reset, the rover has been performing operations and communications as expected
  • This is the first time that Curiosity has executed a fault-related warm reset during its 16-plus months of Mars surface operations.
Mars Base

Satellite Left Stranded by SpaceX Rocket Falls From Space | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/ded-satellite-falls-space.html

scibyte67 Orbcomm

shared by Mars Base on 13 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • Orbcomm
  • satellite, launched Oct. 7 into a bad orbit by a Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) Falcon 9 rocket
  • provided enough data to proceed with the launch of the full constellation starting next year.
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • In its statement, Orbcomm suggested that i
  • had enough access to the satellite in less than four days in orbit to validate the performance of its major subsystems.
  • Orbcomm said that, had its satellite been the primary payload on SpaceX’s Oct. 7 flight, the mission would have been a success
  • OG2 satellite bus systems including power, attitude control, thermal and data handling were also tested to verify proper operation
  • The solar array and communications antenna deployments were successful
  • Orbcomm requested that SpaceX carry one of their small satellites
  • few hundred pounds, vs. Dragon at over 12,000 pounds
  • on this flight so that they could gather test data before we launch their full constellation next year.
  • The higher the orbit, the more test data they can gather, so they requested that we attempt to restart and raise altitude
  • NASA agreed to allow that, but only on condition that there be substantial propellant reserves, since the orbit would be close to the space station
  • Orbcomm understood from the beginning that the orbit-raising maneuver was tentative
  • They accepted that there was a high risk of their satellite remaining at the Dragon insertion orbit.
Mars Base

Mars Rover Curiosity Gets Mission Extension | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/riosity-mission-extension.html

scibyte74 Curiosity MRO

shared by Mars Base on 05 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • Curiosity's mission was originally planned to last two years. It has now been extended indefinitely.
  • Curiosity
  • radioisotope thermoelectric generator (RTG),
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • should be able to continue converting the heat of plutonium-238's radioactive decay into electricity for a long time
  • think it has 55 years of positive power margin
  • NASA will also keep its other Mars assets going as long as possible
  • include the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) and the Opportunity rover
  • applies to NASA's Mars Odyssey orbiter as well
  • doesn't expect the spacecraft to still be viable in 2021
  • launched in 2001 and has been showing some signs of age
  • particularly important for the 2020 rover mission to have functioning orbiters at Mars to help relay communications back and forth to Earth
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