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Mars Base

Touchdown! Soyuz Spacecraft Lands Safely with Russian-US Crew | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/fely-with-russian-us-crew.html

scibyte63 Soyuz

shared by Mars Base on 17 Sep 12 - No Cached
  • Soyuz spacecraft carrying two Russian cosmonauts and an American spaceflyer has landed safely back on Earth
  • 16 September 2012
  • Russian cosmonauts Gennady Padalka, Sergei Revin and NASA astronaut Joe Acaba
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • local time was early Monday morning.
  • Soyuz crew was in good health and spirits
  • He and his Russian crewmates signed their Soyuz spacecraft, which is destined for a Russian museum
  • 125-day spaceflight began in mid-May and included three spacewalks and several robotic cargo ship arrivals.
  • . The three spaceflyers were originally slated to blast off in March, but a pressure test incident cracked their first Soyuz capsule, causing a six-week delay while another spacecraft was readied.
  • launched on May 14 and arrived at the $100 billion orbiting lab May 17. Just eight days later, SpaceX's robotic Dragon capsule docked with the station on a historic demonstration mission, becoming the first private vehicle ever to do so.
  • on Sept. 5, crewmates Sunita Williams and Akihiko Hoshide performed an extra spacewalk — the third for the mission — to replace a vital power unit on the station's backbone-like truss. Using improvised tools such as spare parts and a toothbrush
  • a stuck bolt that had delayed the fix a week earlier
  • Expedition 33
  • will have the station to themselves until mid-October, when three more astronauts will float through the hatch and bring the expedition up to its full complement of six crewmembers.
Mars Base

Curiosity Rover Bolted to Atlas Rocket - In Search of Martian Microbial Habitats - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...-of-martian-microbial-habitats

scibyte22 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 17 Nov 11 - No Cached
  • must liftoff by Dec. 18 at the latest, when the launch window to Mars closes for another 26 months
  • is by far the most advanced robotic emissary sent to the surface of another celestial body
  • MSL will operate for a minimum of one Martian year, equivalent to 687 days on earth.
  • ...4 more annotations...
  • Curiosity’s purpose is to search for evidence of habitats that could ever have supported microbial life on Mars
  • determine whether the ingredients of life exist on Mars today in the form of organic molecules
  • The nuclear power source will significantly enhance the driving range, scientific capability and working lifetime of the six wheeled rover compared to other solar powered landed surface explorers
  • The science payload weighs ten times more than any prior Mars rover mission.
Mars Base

Japanese Satellite to Write Morse Code in Sky | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/ats-space-station-fitsat1.html

scibyte56 FITSAT-1

shared by Mars Base on 25 Jul 12 - No Cached
  • robotic Japanese cargo vessel now en route to the International Space Station is loaded with food, clothes, equipment — and a set of tiny amateur radio satellites, including one that will write Morse code messages in the sky
  • slated to arrive at the station
  • July 27
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • ultrasmall satellites it's carrying, which are known as cubesats, will likely remain on the orbiting lab until September
  • using the Kibo module's robotic arm.
  • One of the cubesats, FITSAT-1, will write messages in the night sky with Morse code, helping researchers test out optical communication techniques for satellites, researchers said.
  • One of FITSAT-1's experimental duties is to twinkle as an artificial star
  • just under 3 pounds (1.33 kilograms
  • high power light-emitting diodes (LEDs) that will produce extremely bright flashes.
  • hope, will be observable by the unaided eye or with small binoculars
  • the cubesat's high-output LEDs will blink in flash mode, generating a Morse code beacon signal.
  • contains a neodymium magnet that forces it to always point to magnetic north, like a compass.
  • Mars Base on 25 Jul 12
     
    FITSAT-1
Mars Base

Movement-limited toddler gets 3-D-printed magic arms (w/ Video) - 0 views

phys.org/...dler-d-printed-magic-arms.html

MedicalDevice GrabBag

shared by Mars Base on 07 Aug 12 - No Cached
  • A disabled toddler suffering from Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita (AMC)
  • thanks to the technology of 3-D printing, which enabled her to use a magical arms device to move freely for the first time.
  • 3-D printed device is based on the Wilmington Robotic Exoskeleton (WREX), an orthopedic apparatus made from hinged bars and resistance bands.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • WREX was constructed to help children with little residual strength from muscular and joint disorders to move their arms in space
  • while WREX was able to help arthrogryposis sufferers as young as six years old, the child in this case study, Emma, was only two and weighed twenty-six pounds
  • team on Emma’s case turned to what they knew about and had available in 3-D printing, which they put to use to suit Emma
  • used a Dimension SST 1200es 3D printer and Stratasys production system. so as to create a prosthetic light enough for young Emma to continue moving around freely.
  • makes use of medical-grade materials that contributed to the success of the device. The ABS plastic material for the magic-arms device was described as “human friendly, strong, and durable.”
  • using a robust 3-D printing technology means that doctors can rely on a system to accommodate wide-ranging specifications for patients
  • allow the doctors to keep adjusting her prosthetic; it will evolve
  • Creating a lightweight exoskeleton by hand would be extremely difficult, and 3-D printing technology enabled the researchers to customize WREX to exact specifications
Mars Base

Darpa's Legged Squad Support System (LS3) to lighten troops' load - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...s-legged-squad-ls3-troops.html

FebMedia Darpa

shared by Mars Base on 09 Feb 12 - No Cached
  • Darpa's Legged Squad Support System (LS3)
  • The Army has identified physical overburden as one of its top five science and technology challenges
  • DARPA is developing a highly mobile, semi-autonomous legged robot, the Legged Squad Support System (LS3), to integrate with a squad of Marines or Soldiers.
  • ...12 more annotations...
  • Recently the LS3 prototype underwent its first outdoor exercise
  • Over the course of the next 18 months, DARPA plans to complete development of and refine key capabilities to ensure LS3 is able to support dismounted squads of warfighters.
  • Features to be tested and validated include
  • ability to carry 400lbs on a 20-mile trek in 24-hours without being refueled
  • refinement of LS3’s vision sensors to track a specific individual or object, observe obstacles in its path and to autonomously make course corrections as needed
  • the addition of “hearing” technology, enabling squad members to speak commands to LS3 such as “stop,” “sit” or “come here.”
  • serves
  • mobile auxiliary power source— troops may recharge batteries for radios and handheld devices while on patrol
  • DARPA seeks to demonstrate that an LS3 can carry a considerable load from dismounted squad members, follow them through rugged terrain and interact with them in a natural way, similar to the way a trained animal and its handler interact.
  • LS3 seeks to have the responsiveness of a trained animal and the carrying capacity of a mule
  • The tests culminate in a planned capstone exercise where LS3 will embed with Marines conducting field exercises.
  • based on mobility technology advanced by DARPA’s Big Dog technology demonstrator, as well other DARPA robotics programs which developed the perception technology for LS3’s “eyes” and planned “ears.”
Mars Base

Full Titanic site mapped for 1st time - 0 views

www.physorg.com/...-03-full-titanic-site-1st.html

scibyte37 Titantic

shared by Mars Base on 09 Mar 12 - No Cached
  • April 10, 1912 file photo, the Luxury liner Titanic departs Southampton, England
  • Researchers have pieced together what's believed to be the first comprehensive map of the entire 3-by-5-mile Titanic debris field
  • Marks on the muddy ocean bottom suggest, for instance, that the stern rotated like a helicopter blade as the ship sank, rather than plunging straight down
  • ...16 more annotations...
  • sonar imaging and more than 100,000 photos taken from underwater robots to create the map
  • Explorers of the Titanic
  • have known for more than 25 years where the bow and stern landed
  • previous maps of the floor around the wreckage were incomplete
  • mapping took place in the summer of 2010 during an expedition to the Titanic led by RMS Titanic Inc., the legal custodian of the wreck
  • joined by other groups, as well as the cable History channel
  • Details on the new findings
  • are not being revealed yet
  • the network will air them in a two-hour documentary on April 15, exactly 100 years after the Titanic sank
  • high-resolution photos - 130,000 of them in all
  • self-controlled robots known
  • along the ocean bottom day and night
  • moving at a little more than 3 miles per hour as they traversed back and forth in a grid along the bottom
  • photos were stitched together on a computer to provide a detailed photo mosaic of the debris
  • layout of the wreck site and where the pieces landed provide new clues on exactly what happened
  • Computer simulations will re-enact the sinking in reverse, bringing the wreckage debris back to the surface and reassembled
Mars Base

China's Yutu Moon Rover Alive and Awake for 3rd Lunar Day of Exploration despite Malfun... - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...xploration-despite-malfunction

scibyte120 ChineseSpaceProgram

shared by Mars Base on 15 Feb 14 - No Cached
  • As night fell on Jan. 25, the rover entered its second two week long period of dormancy just as the rover “experienced a mechanical control abnormality,” according to a report by China’s official government newspaper, The People’s Daily.
  • concerned that it might not be able to survive the extremely low temperatures during the lunar night
  • Experts wer
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Each lunar day and night lasts for alternating periods of 14 Earth days
  • During each long night, the Moon’s temperatures plunge dramatically to below minus 180 Celsius, or minus 292 degrees Fahrenheit
  • The 140 kg Yutu robot is located some 100 m south of the lander.
  • February 13
  • (Feb. 12) amateur radio operators at UHF-satcom reported detection of a signal from Yutu.
Mars Base

How Robo-Bees Could Save America's Crops | Popular Science - 1 views

www.popsci.com/...true-bee-or-robot-be

scibyte103 Robo-Bees

shared by Mars Base on 22 Sep 13 - No Cached
  • Something is killing off up to half of America's bees
  • Fewer bees not only means less honey, it means less food
  • Researchers at Harvard are working on
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • tiny drones the size of bees
  • flying robots designed to be small enough to pollinate a flower (they weigh just 80 milligrams
  • are also designed to hover, giving them plenty of time to transfer pollen
  • wings mimic those of a fly,
  • special ceramic that contracts when stimulated by electricity
  • The robo-bees aren't ready
  • time yet
  • they're so tiny, they can't fit a battery pack for power
  • will also need some sort of computer so they can guide themselves in flight
Mars Base

Backup Computer Glitches On Space Station But Crew Safe, NASA Says - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...tation-but-crew-safe-nasa-says

scibye126 iss

shared by Mars Base on 13 Apr 14 - No Cached
  • A backup computer that controls “some systems associated with robotics
  • is not “responding to commands
  • The crew is safe, there’s no “immediate” change to space station operations, and because the primary computer is working
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • If the computer does need to be replaced, crew members of Expedition 39 will need to do at least one spacewalk
  • NASA is allowing contingency spacewalks in American spacesuits to go forward as the agency addresses problems raised in a report about a life-threatening spacesuit leak in July
  •  confirmed Friday night that a backup computer on the exterior of the International Space Station (ISS) called a Multiplexer-Demultiplexer (MDM) is not responding to commands
  • The station’s MDM computers control some systems associated with robotics aboard the space station
  • The primary MDM operating aboard the space station is functioning normally and there is no immediate impact to space station operations
  • The computer outage does not pose a risk to the six crew members aboard the space station
  • Replacing the backup MDM, if needed, would require a spacewalk
  • April 11
Mars Base

China Readying 1st Moon Rover for Launch This Year | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/na-moon-rover-launch-2013.html

scibyte99

shared by Mars Base on 20 Jun 13 - No Cached
  • China's robotic Chang'e 3 mission, reportedly slated to blast off toward the end of 2013
  • Chang'e 3 will become China's first craft to attempt a soft landing and rover deployment on the surface of the moon
  • the nation's manned spaceflight program continues to move forward. Three "taikonauts" arrived at China's Tiangong 1 space module on June 13, beginning a 12-day stint aboard the orbiting laboratory
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • The three crewmembers are slated to spend a total of 15 days in orbit, which would make their Shenzhou 10 mission the longest manned spaceflight in China's history.
  • According to a statement from the China National Space Administration, the nation carried out a 40-day ground test to mimic the lunar environment, in an attempt to make sure that Chang’e 3 can endure the extreme temperatures on the moon
  • Chang'e 3 lunar probe consists of two main parts: a service module and a lunar landing vehicle
  • Dragon in Space, a website that monitors China's space program
  • the mission will be launched this December
  • The probe would land softly on the moon’s surface and deploy a six-wheeled rover to explore the areas surrounding the landing spot
  • Ready to watch the Chinese moon landing and rover action from above is NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO
  • Looking further into the future, China's step-by-step robotic moon effort also includes a return to Earth of lunar surface materials
  • head of the National Astronomical Observatories of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and chief scientist of the lunar exploration program, said some lunar materials would be scooped up from the moon’s surface, while other material would be acquired from a depth of about 6.6 feet (2 meters).
Mars Base

Curiosity Pulls into Kimberly and Spies Curvy Terrain For Drilling Action - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...vy-terrain-for-drilling-action

scibyte124 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 23 Mar 14 - No Cached
  • NASA’s Curiosity rover has just pulled into
  • terrain chock full of curvy rock outcrops at Kimberly that’s suitable for contact science and drilling action
  • The robot’s arm has been deployed to investigate the most scientifically productive spots
  • ...11 more annotations...
  • the mast mounted ChemCam laser and high resolution cameras to determine the best spot for drilling and sampling.
  • the art robot is conducting contact science with the cameras and spectrometers on the terminus of the 7 foot long robotic arm
  • The team commanded Curiosity to clean out the arms CHIMRA sample handling mechanism in anticipation of boring into the Martian outcrops and delivering
  • samples of cored Martian rocks to the SAM and CheMin miniaturized chemistry labs
  • Scientists directed Curiosity on a pinpoint drive to Kimberly after their interest was piqued by orbital images taken
  • NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO)
  • see three terrain types exposed and a relatively dust-free surface
  • The missions science focus has shifted to “search for that subset of habitable environments which also preserves organic carbon,”
  • To date Curiosity’s odometer stands at 6.2 kilometers
  • has somewhat over another 4 kilometers to go to reach the base of Mount Sharp
  • may arrive at the lower reaches of Mount Sharp sometime in mid 2014, but must first pass through a potentially treacherous dune field
Mars Base

Mars Exploration Rover Mission: The Mission - 0 views

marsrover.nasa.gov/...status.html

scibyte67 opportunity

shared by Mars Base on 13 Oct 12 - No Cached
  • Opportunity is conducting
  • science campaign at a location where orbital observations show the presence of clay minerals
  • rover is positioning near a large, light-toned block of exposed rock outcrop, called "Whitewater Lake."
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • Sol 3092 (Oct. 4, 2012), the rover moved, likely the smallest amount ever, with less than an inch (1 centimeter) of total motion in order to position the robotic arm favorable on a dark-rind surface target
  • n Sol 3094 (Oct. 6, 2012), Opportunity performed a 15-minute brush of a surface target with the Rock Abrasion Tool (RAT)
  • followed with the collection of a Microscopic Imager (MI) mosaic
  • then the placement of the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) for an overnight integration
  • Total odometry is 21.78 miles (35,050.07 meters)
Mars Base

Mars Rover Opportunity Exploring Possibly Habitable Ancient Environment | Space.com - 0 views

www.space.com/ortunity-endeavour-crater.html

scibyte74 opportunity

shared by Mars Base on 05 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • Opportunity rover,
  • is currenlty studying clay deposits on the rim of the Red Planet's Endeavour Crater.
  • clays imply that the area was exposed to relatively neutral — as opposed to harshly acidic or basic — water long ago,
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • clearly show us a chemistry that would've been suitable for life at the Opportunity site
  • Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter spacecraft spotted them from orbit, leading the rover team to point the golf-cart-size robot toward its current location, which is known as Matijevic Hill.
  • From orbit, we have seen the unambiguous infrared spectral signature of clays along the rim of Endeavour Crater
  • Opportunity has already circumnavigated Matijevic Hill
  • ikely stay at Matijevic Hill for a while, trying to understand how the clays were laid down billions of years ago
  • Opportunity is still going strong. It has some age-related issues, such as an arthritic arm, but the rover remains in good health
  • Part of the work will involve investigating mysterious tiny spherules Opportunity has discovered embedded in the clay matrix
  • initially thought the BB-size gray spheres were similar to the iron-rich "blueberries"
  • initial analyses have shown that's not the case, leading Squyres to dub them "newberries."
  • The team isn't sure exactly what the newberries are, or how they formed
Mars Base

NASA aims to send another rover to Mars in 2020 - 0 views

phys.org/...2-12-nasa-aims-rover-mars.html

scibyte74 mars

shared by Mars Base on 05 Dec 12 - No Cached
  • announced plans to launch another mega-rover to the red planet in 2020 that will be modeled after
  • Curiosity
  • To keep costs down, engineers will borrow Curiosity's blueprints, recycle spare parts where possible and use proven technology including the novel landing gear
  • ...13 more annotations...
  • comes as NASA reboots its Mars exploration program during tough fiscal times
  • many other details still need to be worked out, including where the rover will land and the types of tools it will carry to the surface
  • the science goals remain fuzzy
  • at the very least should kickstart a campaign to return Martian soil and rocks to Earth
  • a team of experts will debate whether the new rover should have the ability to drill into rocks and store pieces for a future pickup
  • under orders by the White House to send astronauts to circle Mars in the 2030s followed by a landing
  • Curiosity
  • ran over schedule and over budget
  • the engineering hurdles have been fixed and he expected the new rover to cost less than Curiosity
  • One independent estimate put the mission at $1.5 billion, though NASA is working on its own figure
  • Next year, NASA plans to launch an orbiter to study the atmosphere
  • After NASA pulled out of a partnership with the Europeans in 2016 and 2018, it announced plans to fly a relatively low-cost robotic lander in 2016 to probe the interior
  • since said it will contribute to the European missions, but in a minor role
Mars Base

Now Boston Dynamics' BigDog can lift and toss (w/ video) - 0 views

phys.org/...ynamics-bigdog-toss-video.html

scibyte85 BosonDynamics

shared by Mars Base on 03 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • BigDog has a new appendage to its torso that resembles a head.
  • Boston Dynamics is giving BigDog an enhanced ability to rely on its entire body for throwing heavy objects around, with an appendage powerful enough to lift and throw the objects aside.
  • the entire body goes to work with fancy step-work to throw fifty-pound objects over its shoulder,
  • ...5 more annotations...
  • grasping a block with "jaws" and flinging it out of the way.
  • The idea is to make BigDog successfully cope with heavy objects that need to be hurled out of the way
  • BigDog is the size of a large dog or small mule; about 3 feet long, 2.5 feet tall and weighs 240 lbs
  • BigDog can run at four miles per hour, walk across the roughest terrain, make its way through mud and snow (its four legs are articulated like an animal
  • The robot carries 300-plus pound loads. According to Boston Dynamics, BigDog covered 12.8 miles without stopping or refueling, setting a world record for legged vehicles.
Mars Base

Plastic Wrapped Shuttle Atlantis Slated for Grand Public Unveiling in June - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...grand-public-unveiling-in-june

scibyte86 shuttle

shared by Mars Base on 09 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • Space Shuttle Atlantis
  • will be unveiled to the public in June 2013
  • The plastic wrap is protecting the orbiter from construction debris and will be unfurled in May
  • ...6 more annotations...
  • Then the payload bay doors will be carefully opened and the Canadian built remote manipulator system (RMS) — or robotic arm — will be installed and extended
  • new 90,000-square-foot home
  • mounted high on steel pedestals – tilted at exactly 43.21 degrees – simulating the outlook as though she was ‘in flight’ orbiting Earth and approaching the International Space Station (ISS).
  • Atlantis rises some 30 feet off the ground
  • nose soars 26.5 feet above ground the portside wingtip sits only 7.5 feet from the floor. The wing tip top soars 87 feet from the ground
  • sitting right beside Atlantis will be a co-orbiting, high fidelity full scale replica of NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope
Mars Base

Curiosity Demonstrates New Capability to Scan 360 Degrees for Life Giving Water - and i... - 0 views

www.universetoday.com/...giving-water-and-is-widespread

scibyte87 Curiosity

shared by Mars Base on 19 Mar 13 - No Cached
  • The science team guiding NASA’s Curiosity Mars Science Lab (MSL) rover have demonstrated a new capability that significantly enhances the robots capability to scan her surroundings for signs of life giving water
  • from a distance
  • the rover appears to have found that evidence for water at the Gale Crater landing site is also more widespread than prior indications.
  • ...14 more annotations...
  • Mastcam cameras
  • can now also be used as a mineral-detecting and hydration-detecting tool to search 360 degrees around every spot she explores for the ingredients required for habitability and precursors to life
  • Some iron-bearing rocks and minerals can be detected and mapped using the Mastcam’s near-infrared filters
  • scientists used the filter wheels on the Mastcam cameras to run an experiment by taking measurements in different wavelength’s
  • a rock target called ‘Knorr’ in the Yellowknife Bay area were Curiosity is now exploring
  • Researchers found that near-infrared wavelengths on Mastcam can be used as a new analytical technique to detect the presence of some but not all types of hydrated minerals
  • The first use of the Mastcam 34 mm camera to find water was at the rock target called “Knorr.”
  • see elevated hydration signals in the narrow veins that cut many of the rocks in this area
  • These bright veins contain hydrated minerals that are different from the clay minerals in the surrounding rock matrix
  • Mastcam thus serves as an early detective for water without having to drive up to every spot of interest, saving precious time and effort
  • But Mastcam has some limits
  • It is not sensitive to the hydrated phyllosilicates found in the drilling sample at John Klein
  • Mastcam can use the hydration mapping technique to look for targets related to water that correspond to hydrated minerals
  • Yellowknife Bay basin possesses a significant amount of phyllosilicate clay minerals; indicating an environment where Martian microbes could once have thrived in the distant past.
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