Jun 20, 2022
Arizona wildfire threatens national observatory
Posted by Genevieve Klien in category: space
The blaze has razed 4 non-scientific structures and flames are near 1 telescope and another that’s being built, officials say.
Archive for the ‘space’ category: Page 355
Jun 20, 2022
Toward an Acceptable Framework for Off-Planet Resource Utilization, with Wes Faires
Posted by Adriano Autino in categories: geopolitics, governance, law, space, treaties
We’re live now, on Space Renaissance YouTube channel, with Wes Faires, giving a lecture on space law:
The Working Group on Space Resources under the United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN COPUOS), presents an opportunity for a legally binding instrument to develop under the auspices of the United Nations Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNOOSA), and do so in a manner favorable to space resource utilization for the private sector. The intended result of the Working Group, as stated its 5 years workplan, is to conclude discussions on the development of space resources followed with possible adoption by the United Nations General Assembly as a dedicated resolution or other action. This presentation draws a parallel to a similar scenario with regard to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), where a working group on Deep Sea-Bed resources, executed via specific legal channels within the United Nations, led to a legally binding instrument: The 1994 Agreement on Implementation, resulting in a modification of the international framework governing ocean floor minerals.
The avenue utilized for the execution of the 1994 Agreement on Implementation for UNCLOS provides a course for legally binding instrument to develop via the Working Group on Space Resources. Such an instrument could serve to interpret and elaborate on ambiguities within the Outer Space Treaty framework, while avoiding any parallels to the commercially harmful aspects of the top-down governance structure embedded within the International Seabed Authority.
Jun 19, 2022
Gaseous and scorching “hot Jupiters” make tilted loops around their parent stars
Posted by Atanas Atanasov in category: space
Scorching ‘’hot Jupiters sometimes orbit their parent stars along wonky orbits.
Scorching ‘’hot-Jupiters sometimes orbit their parent stars along wonky orbits. Astronomers are trying to understand why — and if it happens in our own Solar System.
Jun 19, 2022
The Role of AI & Robotics in Space Exploration
Posted by Jose Ruben Rodriguez Fuentes in categories: robotics/AI, space
Like many other industries, the space exploration process is also adopting Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robotics to fast-track its mission. This leads us to great lengths and never explored places. Emerging technologies like machine learning and deep learning are organizations working in space programs an opportunity to embrace AI and robotics. Robots help the space exploration process through the mechanical design of planetary rovers, the mechanical design of space manipulators, actuators and sensors of space robots, end-effector/tools of space robots, reconfigurable robots, and robot mobility. Here are some exemplary cases of robotics and AI in space tech.
1. Canadian Space Association launched Dextre, a robotic arm designed to install and replace small equipment such as exterior cameras or the 100-kg batteries used on the Space Station, and to test new tools and robotics techniques.
2. Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, were designed to conduct close-up studies of Jupiter and Saturn, Saturn’s rings, and both Jupiter and Saturn’s largest moon. These robots are still communicating information via the Deep Space Network (DSN) and are presently closer to Pluto than to Earth or the sun.
Jun 19, 2022
NASA Invites Media, Public to View Webb Telescope’s First Images
Posted by Alberto Lao in category: space
So Excited!!…We Are All Invited!!…❤️🕶❤️…
NASA, in partnership with ESA (European Space Agency) and CSA (Canadian Space Agency), will release the James Webb Space Telescope’s first full-color images and spectroscopic data during a televised broadcast beginning at 10:30 a.m. EDT on Tuesday, July 12, from NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
Jun 17, 2022
Scientists find remains of cannibalized baby planets in Jupiter’s cloud-covered belly
Posted by Alberto Lao in category: space
The gas giant’s belly is full of tiny pre-planets, not pulverized pebbles.
A first-of-its-kind study into the inner workings of Jupiter has revealed that the gas giant fed on baby planets as it grew.
Jun 16, 2022
10 years ago, China docked to its space station — and changed the space race forever
Posted by Atanas Atanasov in category: space
Ten years ago today, China sent a crew to its thus-far unoccupied Tiangong-1 space station. When the crew arrived two days later, the nation joined Russia and the United States in a rarified spacefaring club that marked the beginning of China’s space ascent.
On June 16, 2012, the China Manned Space Agency launched the Shenzhou-9 mission. Its three-person crew — commander Jing Haipeng, major Liu Wang, and China’s first woman in space, major Liu Yang — flew into Earth orbit atop a Long March rocket from Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center near Mongolia in the Gobi Desert. They successfully docked with China’s Tiangong-1 space lab on June 18.
Jun 16, 2022
Astronomers discovered a nearby star hosting two rocky Earth-like planets
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: evolution, space
Though the planets are outside of their star’s habitable zone, as they orbit too closely, “there might be more planets in the system,” according to Avi Shporer, one of the scientists involved in the new study. “There are many multiplanet systems hosting five or six planets, especially around small stars like this one. Hopefully, we will find more, and one might be in the habitable zone. That’s optimistic thinking.”
Either way, the multiplanet system will likely be a focal point for future studies, shedding new insight into planetary formation and the evolution of alien worlds, helping the astronomical community better understand how our own planet came into existence.
Jun 16, 2022
A nonprofit building 3D-printed schools finished its first $300,000 build in Madagascar in 3 weeks
Posted by Genevieve Klien in categories: education, space
Nonprofit Thinking Huts rented a COBOD printer to build its first prototype school in Madagascar. It took the printer 18 hours to complete the walls.
One of the youngest known neutron stars was discovered by astronomers while analyzing data from the VLA Sky Survey (VLASS).
Jun 16, 2022
Meet The High-Tech Urban Farmer Growing Vegetables Inside Hong Kong’s Skyscrapers
Posted by Shubham Ghosh Roy in categories: biotech/medical, robotics/AI, space, sustainability
Hong Kong, a densely populated city where agriculture space is limited, is almost totally dependent on the outside world for its food supply. More than 90% of the skyscraper-studded city’s food, especially fresh produce like vegetables, is imported, mostly from mainland China. “During the pandemic, we all noticed that the productivity of locally grown vegetables is very low,” says Gordon Tam, cofounder and CEO of vertical farming company Farm66 in Hong Kong. “The social impact was huge.”
Tam estimates that only about 1.5% of vegetables in the city are locally produced. But he believes vertical farms like Farm66, with the help of modern technologies, such as IoT sensors, LED lights and robots, can bolster Hong Kong’s local food production—and export its know-how to other cities. “Vertical farming is a good solution because vegetables can be planted in cities,” says Tam in an interview at the company’s vertical farm in an industrial estate. “We can grow vegetables ourselves so that we don’t have to rely on imports.”
Tam says he started Farm66 in 2013 with his cofounder Billy Lam, who is COO of the company, as a high-tech vertical farming pioneer in Hong Kong. “Our company was the first to use energy-saving LED lighting and wavelength technologies in a farm,” he says. “We found out that different colors on the light spectrum help plants grow in different ways. This was our technological breakthrough.” For example, red LED light will make the stems grow faster, while blue LED light encourages plants to grow larger leaves.
