Lifeboat Foundation

Logistics companies on the ground solve similar problems every day and transport goods and commodities across the globe. So, researchers can study how these companies manage their logistics to help space companies and agencies figure out how to successfully plan their mission operations.

One NASA-funded study in the early 2000s had an idea for simulating space logistics operations. These researchers viewed orbits or planets as cities and the trajectories connecting them as routes. They also viewed the payload, consumables, fuel and other items to transport as commodities.

This approach helped them reframe the space mission problem as a commodity flow problem – a type of question that ground logistics companies work on all the time.

Astronomers have recently found hundreds of “polluted” white dwarf stars in our home galaxy, the Milky Way. These are white dwarfs caught actively consuming planets in their orbit. They are a valuable resource for studying the interiors of these distant, demolished planets. They are also difficult to find.

Historically, astronomers have had to manually review mountains of survey data for signs of these stars. Follow-up observations would then prove or refute their suspicions.

By using a novel form of artificial intelligence, called manifold learning, a team led by University of Texas at Austin graduate student Malia Kao has accelerated the process, leading to a 99% success rate in identification. The findings were published July 31 in The Astrophysical Journal.

Common push puppet toys in the shapes of animals and popular figures can move or collapse with the push of a button at the bottom of the toys’ base. Now, a team of UCLA engineers has created a new class of tunable dynamic material that mimics the inner workings of push puppets, with applications for soft robotics, reconfigurable architectures and space engineering.

Inside a push puppet, there are connecting cords that—when pulled taut—will make the toy stand stiff. But by loosening these cords, the “limbs” of the toy will go limp. Using the same cord tension-based principle that controls a puppet, researchers have developed a new type of metamaterial, a material engineered to possess properties with promising advanced capabilities.

Continue reading “Engineers make tunable, shape-changing metamaterial inspired by vintage toys” »

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Continue reading “Battlefleets: In the future, fleets of unimaginable scope may battle over light years, in conflicts that might last milliseconds or entire centuries” »

“This breakthrough enhances astronaut safety and makes long-term Mars missions a more realistic possibility,” said Dr. Dimitra Atri.

How will future Mars astronauts shield themselves from harmful space radiation? This is what a recent study published in The European Physical Journal Plus hopes to address as a pair of international researchers investigated what materials could be suited for providing the necessary shielding against solar and cosmic rays that could harm future Mars astronauts. This study holds the potential to help scientists and engineers better understand the mitigation measures that need to be taken to protect astronauts during long-term space missions.

For the study, the researchers used computer simulations to create Mars-like conditions, whose surface temperatures and pressures are much smaller than Earth’s, along with Mars completely lacking a protective magnetic field that provides our planet with protection from space radiation. Through this, the researchers tested a variety of materials to ascertain their effectiveness in shielding astronauts from space radiation.

Continue reading “New Materials Identified for Protecting Astronauts from Mars Radiation” »

There are two different ways to measure the expansion rate of the Universe, and they don’t agree. And no, new measurements don’t help.

Most of a planet’s water is generally not on its surface but hidden deep in its interior. This affects the potential habitability of distant worlds, as shown by model calculations of researchers at ETH Zurich and Princeton University.

Using the CHARA Array at Georgia State University, researchers have unveiled new insights into Polaris, the North Star.

Known for its role in navigation and as the brightest in a triple-star system, Polaris has now been observed in greater detail, revealing its size to be 46 times that of the Sun and showcasing large surface spots. These findings are crucial for using Cepheids as cosmic yardsticks, aiding in the measurement of cosmic distances and the expansion of the universe.

Researchers using Georgia State University’s Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA) Array have identified new details about the size and appearance of the North Star, also known as Polaris. The new research was published on August 20 in The Astrophysical Journal.

Scientists say there’s a 50/50 chance that our Milky Way galaxy will collide with the Andromeda galaxy. Would you take those odds?