Science & TechnologyS


Rocket

Russia to repurpose ICBMs as commercial launch rockets for civilian space missions


RT
Tue, 30 Oct 2018 11:55 UTC
Russian ICBM Topol M launcher
© Grigory Sysoev / SputnikA Topol-M launcher on display.
Russia is likely to use the Topol-M nuclear-tipped missiles, which are due to be phased out of service, as launch vehicles for civilian space missions. Many of their predecessors were repurposed in a similar way.

The conversion program is likely to begin in about two years, according to one of the developers of Topol ICBMs, Yury Solomonov. He is currently involved with the diversification department of the United Rocket and Space Corporation, a state-run corporation that serves as an umbrella for several leading Russian space industries.

"What we need is greenlight from the President, which we expect in November. Then we can prepare a launch in two years," Solomonov told reporters. The proposed conversion program, which has already been approved by the Russian government, will deliver competitive launch vehicles from outdated ICBMs and will also support jobs in the Russian space industry thanks to new contracts.
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Nebula

Physicists find evidence for 'Ferroelectric' particles, 70 years after they were predicted to exist

MikeMcrae
Science Alert
Sun, 28 Oct 2018 12:00 UTC
magnet
More than eight decades after they were predicted to exist, physicists have found evidence of discrete units of matter that could help us better understand the electrical equivalent of ferromagnetism.

What does that mean? While some materials are permanent magnets that produce their own magnetic field, other materials, such as iron, are ferromagnets. They become attracted to magnets under the influence of a magnetic field.

Ferroelectrics, in theory, work in the same way. But it's the electrical component of an electromagnetic field, not the magnetic one, that changes them.

That doesn't sound too exciting, but unlocking the power of ferroelectrics could lead to advanced data storage technology that would allow us to fit a whole lot more on our devices.

Comment: See also:

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Books

New AI program makes breakthrough in transcribing medieval texts

Denis Loctier & Robert Hackwill
Euronews
Mon, 29 Oct 2018 18:43 UTC
ancient german manuscript text
© Uppsala University
Transkribus system makes breakthrough in understanding medieval texts

How do you find a text in ancient manuscripts, and do it fast? Until recently, computers weren't very good in reading handwritten scripts - but now artificial intelligence has produced a breakthrough.

The Tyrolean State Archive in Innsbruck stores countless documents dating from the 11th century onwards - mostly official records, legal documents and other important handwritten documents from the past. Transcribing these books isn't easy. But this archive is working with scientists to automate the transcription using cutting-edge computer technologies.

"With difficult scripts I believe the new technique will have problems. But with relatively nice calligraphy, the new system has great advantages and helps us a lot," says the Director of the archive, Christoph Haidacher.
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Question

Mysterious linear features spotted on Saturn's moon

Christopher Crockett
Sky & Telescope
Mon, 29 Oct 2018 16:49 UTC
Saturn's Dione
© NASA / JPL-Caltech / Space Science InstituteDione sits front and center above Saturn's rings in this image from the Cassini spacecraft. Saturn's largest moon Titan lurks in the background, Pandora is to the right of the rings, and Pan is the tiny dot to the left.
Saturn's moons are a hodgepodge of misfits. Iapetus looks like the Death Star from Star Wars. Tiny Pan resembles a cosmic empanada. And now something appears to be etching oddly straight lines across the icy surface of Dione.

The lines - or linear virgae, to use the proposed technical term - stretch for up to hundreds of kilometers, and yet are less than 5 kilometers wide. They all run parallel to the equator and reside only at lower latitudes. They are brighter than everything else around them and appear to be laid atop extant features such as ridges and craters, which means they've been emplaced fairly recently. And it's not clear yet how they got there.

"We are not really sure how to get such straight lines," says Emily Martin (National Air and Space Museum), coauthor on an upcoming paper describing the surface scoring in Geophysical Research Letters. "Linear virgae are really unlike anything else we see in the solar system."
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Rocket

Russia tests key piece of nuclear space engine; aims to revolutionize long-range missions


RT
Mon, 29 Oct 2018 11:21 UTC
TEM spacecraft
© WikimediaArtist’s concept shows the nuclear-propelled TEM spacecraft. The four large ‘fins’ are droplets of the radiator.
A key component of Russia's future nuclear space propulsion system, which may revolutionize long-range exploration of the solar system, has been successfully tested, RIA Novosti reported.

Since at least 2009, Russian space and atomic engineers have been developing a special space propulsion system, which uses a 1 megawatt nuclear fusion reactor as source of energy. According to a work competition report, published on a website tracing public spending in Russia and reviewed by the news agency, one of the crucial elements of the system, which is responsible for cooling down the reactor, has been successfully tested.

The nuclear engine, which is known by its abbreviation YaEDU (Nuclear Propulsion and Power Engine System) consists of a small fast-neutron nuclear reactor, an electricity generator fed by the reactor's heat and space thrusters powered by the generator.

Unlike chemical rocket engines, which burn through their propellant in mere minutes, the YaEDU will be able to work for tens of thousands of hours before the reactor core expires. That would allow accelerating a spacecraft to much greater speed over time. The system also acts as a reliable source of power for onboard electric systems as a side benefit. So this type of propulsion is much better than traditional rockets for long-range space missions, like exploration of Mars and beyond.

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Camera

French company uses drones and 3D images to reconstruct destroyed heritage sites


The Epoch Times
Sat, 27 Oct 2018 00:00 UTC
Temple of Bel, Palmyra, Syria
© Joseph Eid/AFP/Getty ImagesTemple of Bel, Palmyra, Syria
A French startup is using drones and 3D technology to create digital reconstructions of cultural heritage sites destroyed by conflict in the Middle East.

Technicians at Iconem, a Paris-based startup, use drones and digital cameras to take hundreds of thousands of photographs of at-risk or destroyed cultural heritage sites such as Palmyra and Aleppo in Syria and Mosul in Iraq.

Information technologists then combine the use of specially created algorithms, artificial intelligence, and supercomputers to process the photographs to produce the 3D reconstructions of the sites.

The startup hopes that their digital reconstructions will be used when the time comes to rebuild war-torn cities such as Aleppo and Mosul.
"And this 3D model that we're in the process of generating will help to make the general map and the land register of the city and all the urban analysis which will allow architects to decide how we will reconstruct the city. Which monuments we will be able to keep and which we can restore and which strategy we will adopt for the future reconstruction," said Iconem founder Yves Ubellman.
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Galaxy

The Hubble Space Telescope is back online after a three week malfunction


RT
Sun, 28 Oct 2018 17:10 UTC
Hubble telescope
© NASAIt lives! Hubble Space Telescope reawakens after breakdown
The Hubble Space Telescope captured by an STS-125 crew member aboard the shuttle Atlantis.
The Hubble Space Telescope is back from the dead more than three tense weeks after it suffered an operational breakdown while carrying out its mission to study and record the distant stars and galaxies of the universe.

This weekend, NASA excitedly announced that Hubble returned to normal operations on Friday, and completed its first scientific observations since October 5 on Saturday.

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Rocket

'Abnormal event' causes the failure of China's first private rocket launch


RT
Sun, 28 Oct 2018 14:37 UTC
rocket launch
© Reuters / StringerIt was hoped Zhuque-1 would be the first privately developed Chinese rocket to enter space.
China's first privately-built space rocket has failed to make it to orbit after something "abnormal" happened during the third stage of lift-off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on Saturday.

Beijing-based 'LandSpace' was the first private company in China to build a three-stage rocket. They said the first and second stage of its Zhuque-1 (ZQ-1) rocket launch went off without a hitch, but something went terribly wrong in the third and final stage.

"If the launch mission can go well, the ZQ-1 will become China's first private carrier rocket that can send satellites into space," said LandSpace CEO Zhang Changwu ahead of the groundbreaking launch, which followed nine months of development.
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Map

AI-equipped autopilot combine harvester makes its debut in Russia


RT
Sun, 28 Oct 2018 14:06 UTC
automated harvester
© Screenshot / dmitry.rogozin / Facebook
Designed by one of Russian leading space-tech makers, this "fully automated" combine harvester can create its own routes and drive itself while sweeping the fields.

A video shared by the nation's space chief, Dmirty Rogozin, shows the harvester making turns and maneuvering while in "full autopilot" mode. The vehicle's operator is present in the cabin but has his hands down, not even touching the controls - the harvester's cutting-edge AI does all the driving.

"Combine drivers in Russia will lose jobs soon," Rogozin joked. "The accuracy of the field's cultivation is two centimeters."

The AI-equipped vehicle is capable of calculating its own routes, while collecting and analyzing various data on the surrounding environment.
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Comet 2

Asteroid Phaethon acts like a comet, contributes to a meteor shower, and it's blue

Matt Williams
Universe Today
Thu, 25 Oct 2018 12:00 UTC
asteroid
Having studies countless asteroids in near-Earth space, astronomers have come to understand that the majority of these rocks fall into one of two categories: S-type (grey) and C-type (red). These are defined by the types of materials on their surfaces, with S-type asteroids being primarily composed of silicate rock and C-type asteroids being made up of carbon materials.

However, there is also what are known as blue asteroids, which make up only a fraction of all known Near-Earth Objects (NEO). But when an international team astronomers observed the blue asteroid (3200) Phaeton during a flyby of Earth, they spotted behavior that was more consistent with a blue comet. If true, then Phaeton is of a class of objects that are so rare, they are almost unheard of.

The team's findings were presented at the 50th annual meeting of the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary Science, which is taking place this week (Oct. 21st to Oct. 26th) in Knoxville, Tennessee. The presentation, titled "Physical Characterization of (3200) Phaethon: Target of the DESTINY+ Mission", was led by Theodore Kareta of the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory (LPL).

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