Science
The latest science news.
Latest
SpaceX’s Starship rocket prototype collapsed on itself this weekend
Another SpaceX test ended in failure this past weekend. A prototype of the company's Starship rocket, SN1, imploded in a pressure test late Friday night. Elon Musk acknowledged the incident on Twitter, sharing a video and writing, "It's fine, we'll just buff it out."
NASA accepts applications for astronauts for the first time in four years
Want to be one of the earlier astronauts to return to the Moon or explore Mars? You now have your chance. NASA has started taking applications for its next round of astronauts, some of them likely to be part of future Moon and Mars expeditions. You'll have until the very end of the month (March 31st at 11:59PM Eastern) to apply, although time isn't the main constraint here -- qualifying is.
Google algorithm lets robots teach themselves to walk
There's no question that robots will play an increasingly central role in our lives in the future, but to get to a stage where they can be genuinely useful there are still a number of challenges to be overcome -- including navigation without human intervention. Yes, we're at a stage where algorithms will allow a robot to learn how to move around, but the process is convoluted and requires a lot of human input, either in picking up the robot when it falls over, or moving it back into its training space if it wanders off. But new research from Google could make this learning process a lot more straightforward.
NASA wants students' help designing tech for the Moon and Mars
NASA is enlisting whatever help it can get to make sure its crewed Moon and Mars missions go smoothly, and that might include help from schools. The agency is running a new round of its Moon to Mars Exploration Systems and Habitation Academic Innovation Challenge (M2M X-Hab if you want a much shorter name) that encourages university students to study and develop spacefaring tech. The challenge will reward work on habitation, vehicles, robotic advance missions, "foundational systems" (think autonomous mission tech and remote manufacturing) and human spaceflight architecture focused on the lunar Gateway.
AI can help find more places to store captured CO2 underground
Scientists dream of storing captured CO2 emissions underground, but it can be tricky to find pockets for storing those emissions -- Earth's seismic "hum" makes it difficult to spot the low-frequency waves that would best help map the subterranean landscape. That might not be a challenge in the future thanks to AI. MIT scientists have developed a machine learning system that uses earthquakes to accurately estimate those low-frequency waves and map underground structures. The trick, according to researchers, was in the training.
Boeing didn't conduct end-to-end tests on Starliner before its failed flight
Boeing Starliner's first unmanned flight failed in December, because the aerospace giant divided its tests in small chunks instead of conducting longer tests that simulate the whole process from launch to docking. Starliner program manager John Mulholland has revealed at a teleconference that the company thought it would be "more logical to break the mission phases into chunks and do a lot of testing in those smaller chunks." Doing a single test run from launch to docking takes over 25 hours, after all.
The Morning After: The Galaxy S20 Ultra comes up short
Hey, good morning! You look fabulous. 5G is here, and to be honest -- I don't get it. I lived through the 4G wars with LTE vs. WiMax, and before that, it was the bad old days of HSPA+, EV-DO and Edge... but now I can't tell mmWave from mid-band. Luckily, Chris Schodt's latest Upscaled video addresses precisely the things I need to know before I (eventually) get a 5G phone. -- Richard
NASA's Psyche asteroid mission will use a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket
SpaceX has won the contract for NASA's Psyche mission, and it's using the Falcon Heavy rocket to launch the spacecraft and ferry it to its target asteroid. NASA first approved plans to visit Psyche back in 2017 before finalizing them last year.
SpaceX approved to build Starship factory and research hub in LA
SpaceX has been given the final go ahead to build its Starship manufacturing plant in the Port of Los Angeles. Authorities granted the company a permit for the facility by a unanimous 12-0 vote, allowing Elon Musk and his team to push on with the development of technology designed to take humans to the moon and Mars.
Virgin Galactic will let people hop to the front of the line for tickets
Are you determined to hop aboard one of Virgin Galactic's tourist spaceflights before any of your friends? The company is happy to accommodate you -- if you're willing to pay. Alongside its latest earnings (more on those in a moment), Virgin has announced a One Small Step program that will bump qualified customers to the front of the line for "firm" reservations. Beginning on February 26th at 3AM Eastern, serious travellers can register online with a $1,000 refundable deposit to get into orbit sooner when tickets are once again available.
Smithsonian opens up 2.8 million images to the public
The Smithsonian Institution is releasing a whopping 2.8 million high-res, two- and three-dimensional images from its collections to a new Open Access online platform. The material comes from all 19 Smithsonian museums, nine research centers, libraries, archives and the National Zoo, and it's available for free to anyone with a web browser.
NASA says its InSight lander has detected over 450 'marsquakes'
Marsquakes are more common but less intense than NASA thought. That's one of the things the agency has revealed in the six papers it recently published on InSight's findings since it landed on the red planet. Apparently, InSight's Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure instrument (SEIS) recorded over 450 seismic signals or "trembling" events since last year. Now, the agency has announced that "the vast majority" of them were probably marsquakes and not merely noise created by environmental factors like the wind.
Pioneering NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson dies at 101
The celebrated NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, who you may know from the book or film Hidden Figures, passed away today at the age of 101. Johnson is perhaps best known for helping NASA prepare for the orbital mission of John Glenn, but that was far from her only achievement or contribution to space exploration.
Flat Earth advocate dies after homemade rocket crashes
The saga of "Mad" Mike Hughes and his homebuilt rocket has come to a tragic end. The Flat Earth advocate died on February 22nd at the age of 64 when the chute for his steam-powered rocket detached shortly after launch, leading to a high-velocity crash in the desert near Barstow, California. The launch was being filmed for a Science Channel series, Homemade Astronauts, that aims to document the adventures of amateur rocket makers.
AI discovers antibiotic that kills even highly resistant bacteria
The use of AI to discover medicine appears to be paying off. MIT scientists have revealed that their AI discovered an antibiotic compound, halicin (named after 2001's HAL 9000), that can not only kill many forms of resistant bacteria but do so in a novel way. Where many antibiotics are slight spins on existing medicine, halicin wipes out bacteria by wrecking their ability to maintain the electrochemical gradient necessary to produce energy-storing molecules. That's difficult for bacteria to withstand -- E. coli didn't develop any resistance in 30 days where it fought off the more conventional antibiotic cipofloxacin within three days.
Minuscule ID chips could help spot even the smallest counterfeits
There are times when something is simply too small to tag it with existing technology, and that can be a serious problem when you're trying to fight counterfeits. MIT researchers might have a way to tag even the tiniest devices, though. They've created a very small (0.002 square inches) ID chip that's still secure enough to protect sensitive data. The team managed the feat through a monolithic chip powered solely by light, with antennas that use beam steering and RFID-style (but terahertz-level) backscatter to wirelessly send info to a nearby reader without requiring energy. These keep the design small while reserving enough electricity for encryption.
'Hardspace: Shipbreaker' is a PC game about salvaging space junk
Considering the huge variety of high-octane video games there are available, it's always something of a surprise when those involving fairly menial tasks --farming, for example -- perform so well. But what about menial tasks... in space? Surely that's just the right balance of excitement and the mundane? Blackbird Interactive -- the studio behind Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak – seems to think so.
SpaceX could send private citizens to space as soon as 2021
SpaceX is one step closer to sending private citizens into outer space. The company signed an agreement with Space Adventures to fly space tourists in the Crew Dragon. Up to four individuals will have the opportunity to take flight sometime in late 2021 or 2022.
NASA is crowdsourcing a sensor that can survive Venus
Venus is hostile to just about everything, including probes -- and while NASA thinks it has Venus-resistant electronics, that doesn't mean future rovers are ready to touch down on the planet's hellish surface. To that end, NASA wants your help. It's teaming with HeroX on a crowdsourced competition to develop an obstacle avoidance sensor that could survive on the Venus-bound AREE explorer. A total of $30,000 in prizes will go to the top three sensors that can navigate rough terrain while withstanding the extreme temperatures (over 800F) and pressure (92 times that of Earth) of the planet.
SpaceX lost another Falcon booster to the sea
This morning, at 10:05AM ET, SpaceX successfully launched its fifth batch of Starlink internet satellites via a Falcon 9 rocket. Unfortunately, it did not manage to land the rocket's booster as planned.