Corey S Powell
Corey S Powell  ·  3 days ago

Content Warning

Tomorrow could be a great day for space robots.

Intuitive Machines' Athena lander is set to touch down on the Moon carrying the "Grace" Hopper robot, Yaoki 360° rover, and MAPP prospecting rover.

Plus a micro-rover, AstroAnt, that will ride around on top of the MAPP rover!

https://www.intuitivemachines.com/im-2 #space #science #nasa #tech

The AstroAnt robot will be operating on the top surface of the Lunar Outpost MAPP-1 rover, equipped with a thermopile on its bottom surface for contact-less temperature measurements of the MAPP-1 rover radiator. With mobility in the Lunar gravity environment, the robot can measure temperature from different positions on the radiator and help with monitoring the performance of the thermal system, which is one of the most crucial systems of the rover. Leveraging magnetic wheels, the robot can attach to and move along the top rover surface. The AstroAnt will be the first-ever miniature robotic mission on the Lunar surface.
The AstroAnt robot will be operating on the top surface of the Lunar Outpost MAPP-1 rover, equipped with a thermopile on its bottom surface for contact-less temperature measurements of the MAPP-1 rover radiator. With mobility in the Lunar gravity environment, the robot can measure temperature from different positions on the radiator and help with monitoring the performance of the thermal system, which is one of the most crucial systems of the rover. Leveraging magnetic wheels, the robot can attach to and move along the top rover surface. The AstroAnt will be the first-ever miniature robotic mission on the Lunar surface.
The AstroAnt robot will be operating on the top surface of the Lunar Outpost MAPP-1 rover, equipped with a thermopile on its bottom surface for contact-less temperature measurements of the MAPP-1 rover radiator. With mobility in the Lunar gravity environment, the robot can measure temperature from different positions on the radiator and help with monitoring the performance of the thermal system, which is one of the most crucial systems of the rover. Leveraging magnetic wheels, the robot can attach to and move along the top rover surface. The AstroAnt will be the first-ever miniature robotic mission on the Lunar surface.
The AstroAnt robot will be operating on the top surface of the Lunar Outpost MAPP-1 rover, equipped with a thermopile on its bottom surface for contact-less temperature measurements of the MAPP-1 rover radiator. With mobility in the Lunar gravity environment, the robot can measure temperature from different positions on the radiator and help with monitoring the performance of the thermal system, which is one of the most crucial systems of the rover. Leveraging magnetic wheels, the robot can attach to and move along the top rover surface. The AstroAnt will be the first-ever miniature robotic mission on the Lunar surface.
The AstroAnt robot will be operating on the top surface of the Lunar Outpost MAPP-1 rover, equipped with a thermopile on its bottom surface for contact-less temperature measurements of the MAPP-1 rover radiator. With mobility in the Lunar gravity environment, the robot can measure temperature from different positions on the radiator and help with monitoring the performance of the thermal system, which is one of the most crucial systems of the rover. Leveraging magnetic wheels, the robot can attach to and move along the top rover surface. The AstroAnt will be the first-ever miniature robotic mission on the Lunar surface.
The AstroAnt robot will be operating on the top surface of the Lunar Outpost MAPP-1 rover, equipped with a thermopile on its bottom surface for contact-less temperature measurements of the MAPP-1 rover radiator. With mobility in the Lunar gravity environment, the robot can measure temperature from different positions on the radiator and help with monitoring the performance of the thermal system, which is one of the most crucial systems of the rover. Leveraging magnetic wheels, the robot can attach to and move along the top rover surface. The AstroAnt will be the first-ever miniature robotic mission on the Lunar surface.
Peter
Peter  ·  4 days ago

Content Warning

@nyrath

"...the expansion of the boundary conditions has its consequences: a new kind of quantum entanglement appears in the theory, mixing past and future, which is not present in conventional particle theory."

I would say it becomes a necessity, and, if not disproved, one hell of a leap in concepts and possibilities.

#Science#Physics#Quantum

SETI Institute
SETI Institute  ·  4 days ago

Content Warning

#PPOD: NASA’s Curiosity Mars rover spotted these finger-like rocks with its Mast Camera, or Mastcam, on May 15, 2022, the mission's 3,474th Martian day, or sol. These rocks likely formed as groundwater trickled through rock in the ancient past, depositing mineral cements over time. When the rock was exposed to the atmosphere many years later, wind eroded the softer material around the cemented portions. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

#space #science #scicomm

Petra van Cronenburg
Petra van Cronenburg  ·  6 days ago

Content Warning

"Baker noted that "there's long been this very human-centric idea of intelligence that only humans are intelligent." That's fallen away within the scientific community as we've studied more about animal behavior. But there's still a bias to privilege human-like behaviors."
https://arstechnica.com/science/2025/03/ai-versus-the-brain-and-the-race-for-general-intelligence/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

A #longread by @arstechnica about the #anthropocentric #bias of #AGI and #AI companies - money versus nature.

#brain #science #moreThanHuman #animals #intelligence #anthropocene #nature

Corey S Powell
Corey S Powell  ·  7 days ago

Content Warning

The X marks Blue Ghost's landing site on the Moon, seen against the current lunar phase. The spacecraft touched down shortly after sunrise, hence the long shadows.

#science #blueghost #moon

Corey S Powell
Corey S Powell  ·  7 days ago

Content Warning

Blue Ghost is on the Moon! Images are coming in now from what appears to be the first fully successful commercial lunar lander. Just look at that shadow.

Over the next 2 weeks, Firefly's Blue Ghost will drill, study lunar dust, and observe an eclipse of the Sun...by the Earth.

https://fireflyspace.com/news/firefly-aerospace-becomes-first-commercial-company-to-successfully-land-on-the-moon/ #space #science #tech

Corey S Powell
Corey S Powell  ·  last week

Content Warning

NASA's Lucy mission is named after the famed hominid fossil.

Lucy (the spacecraft) just got its first look at 4-km-wide asteroid Donaldjohanson, named after the anthropologist who co-discovered Lucy's remains.

https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/goddard/nasas-lucy-spacecraft-takes-its-1st-images-of-asteroid-donaldjohanson/ #space #science #nature

Donaldjohanson. The asteroid is outlined with a square in the right image to guide the eye. Credit: NASA/Goddard/SwRI/Johns Hopkins APL
Corey S Powell
Corey S Powell  ·  last week

Content Warning

Lucy is a crazy ambitious mission that will visit a total of 11 asteroids (and maybe more).

Close-up views of Donaldjohanson are coming April 20.

https://lucy.swri.edu/mission/Targets.html #space #science #nasa

The Lucy mission will travel to eight Trojan asteroids and three main belt asteroids. No other space mission is history has been launched to as many different destinations in independent orbits around the Sun! Lucy launched in October 2021. Its trajectory first takes it by the Earth for two gravity assists before it begins its journey out to the Trojan Asteroids. Before its second Earth gravity assist, Lucy will travel through the inner edge of the main asteroid belt and fly by its first asteroid on November 2023. It will fly by the small asteroid (152830) Dinkinesh and its satellite. Later, on its way out to the Trojan asteroids, Lucy will travel through the main belt again and fly by anoter main belt asteroid on April 2025. It will fly by (52246) Donaldjohanson, an asteroid that the Lucy team named after one of the co-discoverers of the Lucy fossil.
The Lucy mission will travel to eight Trojan asteroids and three main belt asteroids. No other space mission is history has been launched to as many different destinations in independent orbits around the Sun! Lucy launched in October 2021. Its trajectory first takes it by the Earth for two gravity assists before it begins its journey out to the Trojan Asteroids. Before its second Earth gravity assist, Lucy will travel through the inner edge of the main asteroid belt and fly by its first asteroid on November 2023. It will fly by the small asteroid (152830) Dinkinesh and its satellite. Later, on its way out to the Trojan asteroids, Lucy will travel through the main belt again and fly by anoter main belt asteroid on April 2025. It will fly by (52246) Donaldjohanson, an asteroid that the Lucy team named after one of the co-discoverers of the Lucy fossil.
The Lucy mission will travel to eight Trojan asteroids and three main belt asteroids. No other space mission is history has been launched to as many different destinations in independent orbits around the Sun! Lucy launched in October 2021. Its trajectory first takes it by the Earth for two gravity assists before it begins its journey out to the Trojan Asteroids. Before its second Earth gravity assist, Lucy will travel through the inner edge of the main asteroid belt and fly by its first asteroid on November 2023. It will fly by the small asteroid (152830) Dinkinesh and its satellite. Later, on its way out to the Trojan asteroids, Lucy will travel through the main belt again and fly by anoter main belt asteroid on April 2025. It will fly by (52246) Donaldjohanson, an asteroid that the Lucy team named after one of the co-discoverers of the Lucy fossil.
Russell Garwood
Russell Garwood  ·  2 weeks ago

Content Warning

Ever since a PhD student introduced me to the idea, stolonization has been haunting my waking hours. Now it can haunt yours too: some annelid worms develop a gamete-filled structure (stolon), which detaches and swims to find a mate. Some stolons have eyes, antennae, and nervous system 🤯

The image shows female (left) and male (right) stolons which detach from their seafloor-dwelling 'parent' organism and swim to seek each other out.

#science #nature #worms

Adam S. Smith
Adam S. Smith  ·  2 weeks ago

Content Warning

Please welcome the journal Historical Biology to Mastodon and give them a follow: @HistoricalBiology

The journal "Publishes papers on developments in the sciences concerning the history of life through geological time and the biology of past organisms."

#science #paleontology #biology#HistoricalBiology #fossils #geology#EarthScience #nature

Spaceflight 🚀
Spaceflight 🚀  ·  last year
• 📆 2018, #ISS became the first facility to produce #BECs ⚛️ in #space 🌌
• In #space, so-called cool flames 🔥 can burn for minutes
• #ISS water 💦 purification system deployed across #India 🇮🇳, #Mexico 🇲🇽, #Pakistan🇵🇰
• #StemCells regenerative medicine ⚕️ could repair/replace failing organs and cells
• Higher quality protein crystals
• #Microbes 🦠 can extract metals from #regolith
• Tissue/organ-on-a-chip effects faster in #microgravity
• #3Dprinting
• Organ growth
https://interestingengineering.com/lists/13-science-breakthroughs-experiments-iss

#NASA

Spaceflight 🚀
Spaceflight 🚀  ·  last year

Content Warning

“The case for sending humans into #space gets weaker and weaker every year as #robots 🤖 get cleverer and more sophisticated,. They can do the #science ⚗️ 🔬 and assemble large structures in space and are much, much cheaper 💵 📉 to operate in space. We don’t need humans 👨‍🔬 to do #research in space.” https://www.theguardian.com/science/2023/oct/29/international-space-station-25-years

#SpaceRobot#HumanSpaceflight

Rose Rudd
Rose Rudd  ·  3 weeks ago

Content Warning

@georgetakei also thankful to all the scientists and investigators who figure out how to prevent crashes or the loss of life when crashes do occur, and thankful for the required training of all personnel involved and the regulations that require construction that keeps us all safe. #science #prevention #safety
Daniel Pomarède
Daniel Pomarède  ·  3 weeks ago

Content Warning

A Dragonfly for Titan

A new eight-rotor robotic probe will head to the solar system’s most Earth-like moon. Here’s what its team is doing to prepare.

Check out this extensive paper by Matthew R. Francis for Eos, AGU's science news magazine

https://eos.org/features/a-dragonfly-for-titan

#Dragonfly#Titan#Saturn#Moon #satellite #solarsystem #planetaryscience #science#STEM #engineering #drone#AGU#Eos #news #magazine

RDN
RDN  ·  3 weeks ago

Content Warning

The underlying region of complex cognitive functions in birds and mammals--the pallium--arises from different genes, different embryonal tissue, and develops at different rates in these two taxonomic groups. Similarity of functionality has arisen through convergent evolution.

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1073454

#Science#Evolution#ConvergentEvolution#Cognition#Birds#Mammals

Amata :verified_genderqueer:
Amata :verified_genderqueer:  ·  4 weeks ago

Content Warning

I've been seeing hate on NASA lately, being bought into by leftists even, and I just want to point out something very important:

Musk has hated NASA for a *long* time. There is a reason it is being attacked, and a reason public opinion is being swayed against NASA: It *keeps SpaceX in line* more than anything else.

NASA is being seen as "competition" to SpaceX, as the obstacle in his way. It has been like this for quite some time, and now, with DOGE and other things, he can do something about it.

I would like to point out a few things:

1. SPACEX IS NOT CHEAPER
They boast they can "do what NASA does for 10% the cost!" Sure, it's easy when you did none of the R&D.
SpaceX saved on:
Landing tech: DC-X project in 1991-1996
Tank structure: Shuttle SLWT tank, 1998-2011
Merlin Engines: direct descendant of the Fastrac Engine, 1997-2001.

Those three things alone saved SpaceX over 90% of the R&D costs. It's easy to "appear" cheap when you're using off the shelf tech someone else (NASA!) developed.

2. NASA IS GREAT FOR THE ECONOMY!
For every $1 spent on NASA, $8 is put into economy. Its stupid to not invest in that kind of ROI! 800%! At times, its ROI Has been 1600%!

Simply put, if you defund NASA, the economy would shrink so much you would actually have to RAISE taxes to make up for the lost revenue, and without its existence we would be 30 years behind in technology and the quality of life for everyone would be much lower. Science and research is GOOD for society, it's the fuel for all progress.

3. WHAT HAS NASA DONE FOR ME?! (Surely you just mean NASA is good for tech & science folk....)

Nope! Good for all!
Ever have an MRI or CAT Scan? They wouldn't exist without the Apollo program! The software that made them possible was originally written to analyze lunar photography.

Low power digital x-Rays was planetary body research.

Heart pumps are modeled after space shuttle turbopumps.

The software that designed your car was originally written to design spacecraft!

Who do you think pioneered all the early research into alternative power like solar panels, hydrogen fuel cells, and durable batteries? NASA!

NASA developed tech and satellites is also what improves agricultural yields while reducing the needs for water, fertilizer, and pesticides.

Do you really think Musk gives two shits? No. He wants the money, he wants to let SpaceX run amok without any oversight for safety, without any "competition".

All fights are important, but do realise that this one is a huge thorn in his side, and one that is keeping a huge problem from ballooning and swallowing us all whole.

Do not be fooled or swayed by lies, of tactics meant to divide, of things being done to make you be angry at NASA. If he can make you hate NASA, he won.

Expect far more space junk to fall, the night sky to be ruined by satellites, and the loss of all things good that proper research and design does for humanity and gives back to the world. Not to mention: enjoy seeing the horrible things he can accomplish fully unchecked.

ETA: Now that you know, call / fax / email your senators and reps, and whatever else too! Boosting gets people thinking, but thinking is not action!

#SpaceX #nasa#space #earth #science #technology

The A1 test stand at Stennis, which on this day did a full burn test of the redesigned RS-25 engine. The A1 is a vertical firing single position stand, meaning it holds one rocket engine at a time in an upright position with thrust directed downward. You can see the RS-25 engine in the stand, there is a truck and a large van for some scale. The NASA logo (meatball) is proudly displayed on the upper right of the stand.
The A1 test stand at Stennis, which on this day did a full burn test of the redesigned RS-25 engine. The A1 is a vertical firing single position stand, meaning it holds one rocket engine at a time in an upright position with thrust directed downward. You can see the RS-25 engine in the stand, there is a truck and a large van for some scale. The NASA logo (meatball) is proudly displayed on the upper right of the stand.
The A1 test stand at Stennis, which on this day did a full burn test of the redesigned RS-25 engine. The A1 is a vertical firing single position stand, meaning it holds one rocket engine at a time in an upright position with thrust directed downward. You can see the RS-25 engine in the stand, there is a truck and a large van for some scale. The NASA logo (meatball) is proudly displayed on the upper right of the stand.
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