Science & TechnologyS


Robot

Space droids battle to save our planet


RedOrbit
Tue, 21 Jan 2014 12:08 UTC
Robots
© ESA The 2013 Spheres competition trophy backdropped by replicas of the Spheres. The ultimate robot game challenges youngsters to write algorithms to control Spheres, short for Synchronised Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites. Spheres are volleyball-sized satellites that hover around the International Space Station using 12 jets powered by compressed gas. These autonomous robots have their own power, propulsion and navigation.
A comet heading towards Earth threatens humanity's existence - that was the virtual scenario of this year's Zero Robotics tournament. Secondary-school students from across Europe controlled miniature satellites on the International Space Station in a competition to save our planet.

The Space Station was turned into a playing field for the finals. The ultimate robot game challenged youngsters to write algorithms that controlled the Spheres, short for Synchronised Position Hold, Engage, Reorient, Experimental Satellites.

The Spheres are volleyball-sized satellites that hover around the Station using 12 jets powered by compressed gas. These autonomous robots have their own power, propulsion and navigation.

Last Friday was the fourth time European contenders ran their commands in space, and each year the competition has grown. Over 140 European students joined the US competitors, writing code to redirect an incoming comet while taking space debris and limited laser resources into account.

European finalists met at the ESA Technical Centre in the Netherlands to follow the competition live from space. The US teams were connected at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
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Question

Mars mystery rock analysis shows unusual composition following sudden appearance

Brittany Hillen
Slash Gear
Mon, 20 Jan 2014 14:52 UTC
Mars Mystery Rock
© NASA
The NASA rover Opportunity sent back a couple of surprising images from Mars last week, both of which were taken with its Pancam, revealing the rather sudden appearance of a small rock. Researchers were surprised at the quick change, and though they offered a couple possible explanations, an investigation was kicked off to try and determine how it happened. Fast-forward through the weekend, and an analysis has offered a new surprise: the chemical composition is unlike anything previously analyzed on the Red Planet.

There is said to be a time span of a little under two weeks between the time the first picture -- on the left -- and the second picture were taken, the second including a small rock described as about the size of a jelly doughnut. A couple possibilities for the rock's appearance were put forth, among them being the accidental flinging of the rock by the rover due to a damaged front actuator or debris that landed there from nearby.
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Meteor

Penny finally drops for mainstream astronomy: 'Mars moon Phobos may be a captured asteroid'

Nola Taylor Redd
Space.com
Mon, 20 Jan 2014 06:51 UTC
Image
One of these is 'asteroid' Vesta... the other is 'moon' Phobos. Not easy to tell them apart, is it?
The origin of the two small moons of Mars, called Phobos and Deimos, have been shrouded in mystery since their discovery in 1877. The surface of the moons and their orbits hint at different origins. But new models provide stronger suggestions that Phobos, at least, may be a captured asteroid.

An international team of astronomers modeled the ultraviolet light reflected from the surface of Phobos and compared it to the asteroid 624 Hektor and the Tagish Lake meteorite found on Earth. They found that it bore strong similarities to both.

"This provided more additional support for compositional similarities between Phobos and D-type asteroids," primary investigator Maurizio Pajola of the University of Padova in Italy told SPACE.com by email.

Comment: FINALLY!

Now if they can just keep going until they realize that all space rocks are essentially the same - comets, asteroids, moons, meteors - just varied in size and electrical activity...

Solar system-wide 'climate change': Tally of Jupiter's moons goes up and down

NASA's Hubble sees 'asteroid' spouting six comet-like tails "dust radiating from it like spokes on a wheel"

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Display

U.S. security firm says Target, Neiman Marcus stores were hacked by BlackPOS malware designed by Russian teen

Beth Stebner
US Daily News
Sat, 18 Jan 2014 18:42 UTC
Security firm IntelCrawler posted that the teen sold the software responsible for breaching security at the retailers and affecting as many as 110 million Target customers alone.
Image
© IntelCrawlerA photo of the 17-year-old alleged Target credit card hacker, who has ties to St. Petersburg, Russia.
From Russia, with malware.

A 17-year-old Russian national from St. Petersburg was responsible for the malicious programing that allowed for data from Target and Neiman Marcus to be compromised, according to a California-based security firm.

IntelCrawler said in a blog post Friday that it identified the creator, who they said wasn't responsible for the security breaches of the two retailers, but rather sold the software to cybercriminals throughout Eastern Europe.
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Satellite

Rosetta due to wake up: Alarm to sound for comet mission

Jonathan Amos
BBC News
Sun, 19 Jan 2014 01:31 UTC
Image
© Airbus.Philae robot's task in November: No mission has ever attempted to make a soft landing on a comet before.
One of the most daring space missions ever undertaken reaches a key milestone on Monday.

Europe's Rosetta probe was launched a decade ago on a long quest to chase down and land on a comet, and has spent the past two-and-a-half-years in hibernation to try to conserve power.

But at 10:00 GMT, an onboard "alarm clock" is expected to rouse the spacecraft from its slumber.

Rosetta will then warm its systems before sending a signal to Earth.

Receipt of this "I'm awake" message will confirm the great endeavour is still on course.

Rosetta is due to rendezvous with Comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in August.

And after spending a couple of months studying and mapping this 4km-wide ball of ice and dust, it will drop a small robot on to the comet's surface to gather samples and panoramic pictures.

Controllers at the European Space Agency's (Esa) operations centre here in Darmstadt, Germany, do not know precisely when Monday's all-important message will arrive, but they anticipate receiving it sometime between 17:30 and 18:30 GMT.
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Magic Wand

New species of sea anemone found in Antarctica, mysterious Edwardsiella andrillae lives upside down under ice

Philip Ross
International Business Time
Sat, 18 Jan 2014 14:39 UTC
Image
© Creative CommonsA recently discovered species of sea anemone, Edwardsiella andrillae, dot the underbelly of the Ross Ice Shelf.
Mother Nature is full of surprises. Scientists exploring the Ross Ice Shelf, Antarctica's largest floating body of ice, stumbled on something completely unexpected. A new species of sea anemone, dubbed Edwardsiella andrillae, was found dangling in the water hundreds of feet below the ice shelf.

Researchers from the Antarctic Geological Drilling Program, or ANDRILL, discovered the sea anemone while testing underwater equipment, including a remote-controlled robot. The team had drilled a hole through hundreds of feet of ice and dropped survey equipment down it when they chanced upon the strange species of sea anemone.

"We were doing survey work and melted a hole through [850 feet] of ice," Frank Rack, ANDRILL's executive director, told ABC News. "We deployed the robot and as it got closer, the cameras detected anemones."
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Comet 2

New Comet: P/2014 A3 (PanSTARRS)

Seiichi Yoshida
Aerith Net
Sun, 19 Jan 2014 12:35 UTC
Discovery Date: January 9, 2014

Magnitude: 21.1 mag

Discoverer: Pan-STARRS 1 telescope (Haleakala)

Comet p/2014 A3 PanSTARRS
© Aerith Net
The orbital elements are published on M.P.E.C. 2014-B02.
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Comet

New Comet: P/2014 A2 (Hill)

Seiichi Yoshida
Aerith Net
Sun, 19 Jan 2014 12:31 UTC
Discovery Date: January 9, 2014

Magnitude: 18.5 mag

Discoverer: R. E. Hill (Catalina Sky Survey)

Comet P/2014 A2(Hill)
© Aerith NetMagnitudes Graph
The orbital elements are published on M.P.E.C. 2014-B01.
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Info

Self-propelled hybrid bio-bots developed at University of Illinois


RedOrbit
Sun, 19 Jan 2014 12:19 UTC
Bio-Hybrid Machines
© Raj Creationzs/ShutterstockThe bio-hybrid machines can swim like sperm and are modeled after flagella.
Engineers from the University of Illinois have developed a new line of miniature, swimming bio-bots - the first class of synthetic structures capable of traveling through viscous biological fluids on their own.

Their bio-hybrid machines, which are detailed in the January 17 edition of the journal Nature Communications, can swim like sperm and are modeled after flagella, or single-celled creatures that have long tails, the researchers explained in a statement.

"Micro-organisms have a whole world that we only glimpse through the microscope," said lead investigator Taher Saif, a mechanical science and engineering professor at the university. "This is the first time that an engineered system has reached this underworld."

Saif and his colleagues began by creating the body of this bio-bot using a flexible polymer, and then they cultured heart cells near the junction of its head and tail. Those cells self-aligned and synchronized to beat together, sending a wave down the machines' tails and propelling them forward, they explained.

According to the university, this self-organization is "a remarkable emergent phenomenon" and while they do not fully understand exactly how the cells on the flexible polymer tail are able to communicate with one-another, they have to beat together in the correct direction in order for movement to occur in the tail.
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Cardboard Box

Amazon wants to ship your package before you buy it

Greg Besinger
Digits
Fri, 17 Jan 2014 14:12 UTC
Amazon.com knows you so well it wants to ship your next package before you order it.

The Seattle retailer in December gained a patent for what it calls "anticipatory shipping," a method to start delivering packages even before customers click "buy."

The technique could cut delivery time and discourage consumers from visiting physical stores. In the patent document, Amazon says delays between ordering and receiving purchases "may dissuade customers from buying items from online merchants."

So Amazon says it may box and ship products it expects customers in a specific area will want - based on previous orders and other factors - but haven't yet ordered. According to the patent, the packages could wait at the shippers' hubs or on trucks until an order arrives.

Image
© unkownAn image from patent, showing a possible logistics trail
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