Tag Archives: science

Japan’s SLIM lunar lander made it to the moon, but it’ll likely die within hours

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Japan has become the fifth country to successfully land on the moon after confirming today that its SLIM lander survived its descent to the surface — but its mission is likely to be short lived. JAXA, the Japanese space agency, says the spacecraft is having problems with its solar cell and is unable to generate electricity. In its current state, the battery may only have enough juice to keep it running a few more hours.

Based on how the other instruments are functioning, JAXA said in a press conference this afternoon that it’s evident SLIM did make a soft landing. The spacecraft has been able to communicate with Earth and receive commands, but is operating on a low battery. It’s unclear what exactly the issue with the solar cell is beyond the fact that it’s not functioning.

There’s a chance that the panels are just not facing the right direction to be receiving sunlight right now, which would mean it could start charging when the sun changes position. But, JAXA says it needs more time to understand what has happened. LEV-1 and LEV-2, two small rovers that accompanied SLIM to the moon, were able to successfully separate from the lander as planned before it touched down, and so far appear to be in working condition.

JAXA says it’s now focusing on maximizing the operational time it has left with SLIM to get as much data as possible from the landing. SLIM — the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon — has also been called the “Moon Sniper” due to its precision landing technology, which is supposed to put it within 100 meters of its target, the Shioli crater. The agency is planning to hold another press conference next week to share more updates.

Though its time may be running out, SLIM’s landing was still a major feat. Only four other countries have successfully landed on the moon: the US, China, India and Russia. The latest American attempt, the privately led Peregrine Mission One, ended in failure after the spacecraft began leaking propellant shortly after its January 8 launch. It managed to hang on for several more days and even reached lunar distance, but had no chance of a soft landing. Astrobotic, the company behind the lander, confirmed last night that Peregrine made a controlled reentry, burning up in Earth’s atmosphere over the South Pacific.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/japans-slim-lunar-lander-made-it-to-the-moon-but-itll-likely-die-within-hours-195431502.html?src=rss

Scientists extract the sharpest image of a black hole yet

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Black holes are one of the most powerful forces in the universe, but we had never seen one until the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) team released the first image back in 2019. Now, the EHT Collaboration has released the most detailed image yet of the same M87 black hole, created with the aid of an additional telescope and independent data from 2018, that better displays the insane physics behind these supermassive objects. 

The first image was captured in 2017 (it takes a long time to process the data) using eight high-altitude telescopes from locations including Chile and Antarctica. The complex technique required the synchronization of atomic clocks, use of the Earth's rotation and processing of petabytes of RAW telescope data. The result was slightly fuzzy, but clearly showed the expected "donut" with the black hole at the center and accretion disk made of matter inhaled from nearby stars. 

However, the EHT collaboration captured another image a year later using an additional telescope in Greenland. That "significantly" improved the image fidelity, particularly in the north-south direction, according to the EHT. One of the original platforms, The Large Millimeter Telescope, also gained sensitivity by using its full 50 meter surface for the first time. The teams also introduced new data analysis techniques that boosted accuracy.

The result is a sharper and brighter image that also clearly shows the Doppler/Einstein effects that cause a black hole to appear to be brighter on one side. That bright spot actually shifted to the right between the capture of the two images. 

"The biggest change, that the brightness peak shifted around the ring, is actually something we predicted when we published the first results in 2019," said Dr. Britt Jeter from Taiwan's ASIAA. "While general relativity says the ring size should stay pretty fixed, the emission from the turbulent, messy accretion disk around the black hole will cause the brightest part of the ring to wobble around a common center. The amount of wobble we see over time is something we can use to test our theories for the magnetic field and plasma environment around the black hole."

The new image also shows that the science behind the image technique is sound and reproduceable. "Confirmation of the ring in a completely new data set is a huge milestone for our collaboration and a strong indication that we are looking at a black hole shadow and the material orbiting around it," said Dr. Keiichi Asada from ASIAA. 

The EHT Collaboration will continue to advance the science with new observations set for the first half of 2024. At that time, scientists hope to capture multiple images to create the first "video" of a black hole to show its chaotic movements. As before, it could take several years (and the participation of many scientists) to get the final result. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/scientists-extract-the-sharpest-image-of-a-black-hole-yet-131003088.html?src=rss

Peregrine moon lander and its cargo will likely burn up in Earth’s atmosphere

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It looks like the Peregrine lunar lander’s final resting place will be back at home where it started. The doomed spacecraft, which experienced an anomaly shortly after launch and has been leaking propellant ever since, is expected to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere, Astrobotic wrote in an update on X this weekend. The company plans to host a press conference with NASA on Thursday January 18 at 12PM ET to discuss the lander’s fate.

Peregrine has so far hung on much longer than anyone thought it would after the leak was first detected on January 8, and Astrobotic has been posting round-the-clock status updates. The company days ago ruled out a soft landing on the moon’s surface, but there’s been some uncertainty about where exactly it’ll end up. Peregrine did manage to make it to lunar distance — reaching 238,000 miles from Earth on Friday and then 242,000 as of Saturday — but because of where the moon currently is in its orbit, nothing was there to meet it.

If all had gone according to plan, Peregrine would have met up with the moon about 15 days after launch, at which point it could begin the transition from Earth orbit to lunar orbit. It’s only been six days, and Peregrine’s dwindling fuel supply isn’t likely to carry it for nine more. “Our analysis efforts have been challenging due to the propellant leak, which have been adding uncertainty to predictions of the vehicle’s trajectory,” Astrobotic wrote in its most recent update on Saturday. “Our latest assessment now shows the spacecraft is on a path towards Earth, where it will likely burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere.”

It was always a known risk that Peregrine Mission One might end this way; moon landings are notoriously hard. The commercial mission marked the first of those contracted under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, and in a briefing ahead of last week’s launch, NASA’s CLPS Program Manager Chris Culbert said, “We recognize that success cannot be ensured.” 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/peregrine-moon-lander-and-its-cargo-will-likely-burn-up-in-earths-atmosphere-204002942.html?src=rss

Peregrine moon lander and its cargo will likely burn up in Earth’s atmosphere

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It looks like the Peregrine lunar lander’s final resting place will be back at home where it started. The doomed spacecraft, which experienced an anomaly shortly after launch and has been leaking propellant ever since, is expected to burn up in Earth’s atmosphere, Astrobotic wrote in an update on X this weekend. The company plans to host a press conference with NASA on Thursday January 18 at 12PM ET to discuss the lander’s fate.

Peregrine has so far hung on much longer than anyone thought it would after the leak was first detected on January 8, and Astrobotic has been posting round-the-clock status updates. The company days ago ruled out a soft landing on the moon’s surface, but there’s been some uncertainty about where exactly it’ll end up. Peregrine did manage to make it to lunar distance — reaching 238,000 miles from Earth on Friday and then 242,000 as of Saturday — but because of where the moon currently is in its orbit, nothing was there to meet it.

If all had gone according to plan, Peregrine would have met up with the moon about 15 days after launch, at which point it could begin the transition from Earth orbit to lunar orbit. It’s only been six days, and Peregrine’s dwindling fuel supply isn’t likely to carry it for nine more. “Our analysis efforts have been challenging due to the propellant leak, which have been adding uncertainty to predictions of the vehicle’s trajectory,” Astrobotic wrote in its most recent update on Saturday. “Our latest assessment now shows the spacecraft is on a path towards Earth, where it will likely burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere.”

It was always a known risk that Peregrine Mission One might end this way; moon landings are notoriously hard. The commercial mission marked the first of those contracted under NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program, and in a briefing ahead of last week’s launch, NASA’s CLPS Program Manager Chris Culbert said, “We recognize that success cannot be ensured.” 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/peregrine-moon-lander-and-its-cargo-will-likely-burn-up-in-earths-atmosphere-204002942.html?src=rss

NASA finally got the stuck lid off its asteroid Bennu sample container

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You’d think grabbing a scoop of dirt off an orbiting space rock and then delivering it back to Earth would be the most complicated part of an asteroid sample collection mission, but the real challenge, it turns out, is actually opening that sample container once it’s back home. It’s taken a little over three months, but NASA says it has finally removed two stuck fasteners that were preventing it from accessing the bulk of material collected from asteroid Bennu by its OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. OSIRIS-REx dropped the sample off on September 24 before heading off to study another asteroid, Apophis.

While NASA was initially able to collect a few ounces of asteroid material that was found on the outside of the Touch-and-Go-Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM), its inner contents remained locked away due to issues with two of the 35 fasteners that keep the container closed. The TAGSAM is housed in a special glovebox to prevent the sample from being contaminated, and only certain tools are approved for use with it. None of the existing tools were working to get the stubborn fasteners off the TAGSAM head, so the team had to develop new ones.

“In addition to the design challenge of being limited to curation-approved materials to protect the scientific value of the asteroid sample, these new tools also needed to function within the tightly-confined space of the glovebox, limiting their height, weight, and potential arc movement,” said Dr. Nicole Lunning, an OSIRIS-REx curator. Now that the TAGSAM head has been freed, the team can move forward with the container’s disassembly — meaning we’ll soon be able to see what’s inside. NASA’s preliminary assessment of dust and rocks from outside the TAGSAM found evidence of carbon and water.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nasa-finally-got-the-stuck-lid-off-its-asteroid-bennu-sample-container-185814782.html?src=rss

NASA finally got the stuck lid off its asteroid Bennu sample container

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You’d think grabbing a scoop of dirt off an orbiting space rock and then delivering it back to Earth would be the most complicated part of an asteroid sample collection mission, but the real challenge, it turns out, is actually opening that sample container once it’s back home. It’s taken a little over three months, but NASA says it has finally removed two stuck fasteners that were preventing it from accessing the bulk of material collected from asteroid Bennu by its OSIRIS-REx spacecraft. OSIRIS-REx dropped the sample off on September 24 before heading off to study another asteroid, Apophis.

While NASA was initially able to collect a few ounces of asteroid material that was found on the outside of the Touch-and-Go-Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM), its inner contents remained locked away due to issues with two of the 35 fasteners that keep the container closed. The TAGSAM is housed in a special glovebox to prevent the sample from being contaminated, and only certain tools are approved for use with it. None of the existing tools were working to get the stubborn fasteners off the TAGSAM head, so the team had to develop new ones.

“In addition to the design challenge of being limited to curation-approved materials to protect the scientific value of the asteroid sample, these new tools also needed to function within the tightly-confined space of the glovebox, limiting their height, weight, and potential arc movement,” said Dr. Nicole Lunning, an OSIRIS-REx curator. Now that the TAGSAM head has been freed, the team can move forward with the container’s disassembly — meaning we’ll soon be able to see what’s inside. NASA’s preliminary assessment of dust and rocks from outside the TAGSAM found evidence of carbon and water.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nasa-finally-got-the-stuck-lid-off-its-asteroid-bennu-sample-container-185814782.html?src=rss

MIT experts develop AI models that can detect pancreatic cancer early

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Researchers at MIT’s CSAIL division, which focuses on computer engineering and AI development, built two machine learning algorithms that can detect pancreatic cancer at a higher threshold than current diagnostic standards. The two models together formed to create the “PRISM” neural network. It is designed to specifically detect pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), the most prevalent form of pancreatic cancer.

The current standard PDAC screening criteria catches about 10 percent of cases in patients examined by professionals. In comparison, MIT’s PRISM was able to identify PDAC cases 35 percent of the time.

While using AI in the field of diagnostics is not an entirely new feat, MIT’s PRISM stands out because of how it was developed. The neural network was programmed based on access to diverse sets of real electronic health records from health institutions across the US. It was fed the data of over 5 million patient’s electronic health records, which researchers from the team said “surpassed the scale” of information fed to an AI model in this particular area of research. “The model uses routine clinical and lab data to make its predictions, and the diversity of the US population is a significant advancement over other PDAC models, which are usually confined to specific geographic regions like a few healthcare centers in the US,” Kai Jia, MIT CSAIL PhD senior author of the paper said.

MIT’s PRISM project started over six years ago. The motivation behind developing an algorithm that can detect PDAC early has a lot to do with the fact that most patients get diagnosed in the later stages of the cancer’s development — specifically about eighty percent are diagnosed far too late.

The AI works by analyzing patient demographics, previous diagnoses, current and previous medications in care plans and lab results. Collectively, the model works to predict the probability of cancer by analyzing electronic health record data in tandem with things like a patient’s age and certain risk factors evident in their lifestyle. Still, PRISM is still only able to help diagnose as many patients at the rate the AI can reach the masses. At the moment, the technology is bound to MIT labs and select patients in the US. The logistical challenge of scaling the AI will involve feeding the algorithm more diverse data sets and perhaps even global health profiles to increase accessibility.

Nonetheless, this isn't MIT’s first stab at developing an AI model that can predict cancer risk. It notably developed a way to train models how to predict the risk of breast cancer among women using mammogram records. In that line of research, MIT experts confirmed, the more diverse the data sets, the better the AI gets at diagnosing cancers across diverse races and populations. The continued development of AI models that can predict cancer probability will not only improve outcomes for patients if malignancy is identified earlier, it will also lessen the workload of overworked medical professionals. The market for AI in diagnostics is so ripe for change that it is piquing the interest of big tech commercial companies like IBM, which attempted to create an AI program that can detect breast cancer a year in advance.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mit-experts-develop-ai-models-that-can-detect-pancreatic-cancer-early-222505781.html?src=rss

NASA’s new X-59 plane could hit supersonic speeds with minimal sonic boom

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NASA’s X-59 Quesst supersonic commercial jet, which is being developed by Lockheed Martin, will have its flight test livestreamed as a demonstration of how quiet it can be in the air. The $247.5 million Quesst, whose name is short for Quiet SuperSonic Tech, will be shown on the livestream dramatically emerging from Lockheed Martin's Skunk Works facility in Palmdale, California. NASA has been on a mission since 2018 to prove that its X-59 can fly over cities without producing noise pollution, or sonic booms. This test flight marks an important milestone in the six-year-old project.

The first flight will be streamed on January 12 at 4pm ET on YouTube, as well as the NASA app and the NASA+ streaming service.

The space agency said it will survey people about the noises they hear from the jet during the first flight. It did not specify how it would find these people, or many people it would poll. The data collected will be sent to regulators and used to help propose new rules that limit the use of supersonic jets. The US federal government has blocked all civilian supersonic jets from flying over land for over five decades.

When NASA first announced its quiet supersonic technology project in 2018, administrator Jim Bridenstine said, “This aircraft has the potential to transform aviation in the United States.” While the jet was supposed to first take flight in 2021, the debut today still marks a major milestone in the QueSST mission. By 2027, NASA expects to have more definitive results about how effective the new aircraft technology is at reducing flight noise.

If new laws are eventually passed that permit supersonic jet aircrafts to fly in close proximity to land, high-speed commercial flights could become a reality. Once NASA and Lockheed Martin finalize development of the aircraft, the agency said it will conduct safety evaluations for about nine months. After enough evidence is shared to prove that the Quesst aircraft can be flown safely, NASA plans to expand its flight tests to cities across the US and collect more information about the noise it produces through additional surveys.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nasas-new-x-59-plane-could-hit-supersonic-speeds-with-minimal-sonic-boom-210037676.html?src=rss

NASA delays its first crewed Artemis mission until September 2025

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NASA is delaying its return to the Moon with the Artemis program. "To give Artemis teams more time to work through the challenges with first-time developments, operation and integration, we're gonna give more time on Artemis 2 and 3," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told reporters on a call.

As such, Artemis 2, which had been scheduled for a November 2024 launch, is now targeting September 2025. That four-person mission is set to fly around the Moon, in a similar fashion to the uncrewed Artemis 1. As for Artemis 3, which will take humans back to the lunar surface for the first time since 1972, that's now targeted for September 2026, marking a nine-month delay.

Those are the only delays NASA has announced for now. Nelson said "Artemis 4 remains on track for September 2028." Along with a lunar landing, that mission will mark the delivery of a habitat module to the Lunar Gateway, a space station that's planned for lunar orbit.

The delays are for safety reasons. "For Artemis 2, there are new capabilities being on-ramped for the mission," Amit Kshatriya, deputy associate administrator of the Moon to Mars Program said. Those include propellant loading, crew loading and egress and fresh abort and life support systems.

Kshatriya said NASA is learning from both the data it obtained from Artemis 1 and the production of components for future missions. "From the test flight in particular, we had one major finding that we need a little bit more time to work [on] and that is the performance of the thermal protection system on the spacecraft, on the heat shield," Kshatriya said.

While the heat shield performed well overall during the Artemis 1 landing in terms of thermal protection, it experienced "some unexpected phenomena we need to make sure we understand perfectly," namely some charred material. NASA doesn't want to leave anything to chance when it comes to astronauts' safety and it spent "the bulk of 2023 investigating" that concern, Kshatriya noted. NASA hopes to identify the root cause of the issue in the spring.

Meanwhile, among other concerns, NASA encountered some issues with the life support system. "During the acceptance of some components for Artemis 3, we noticed a failure in some motor valve circuitry," Kshatriya said. "These components passed acceptance testing for Artemis 2, but did not pass them for Artemis 3. That gave us pause to stop and look at that circuit in a more detailed way." As such, NASA found a design flaw in the circuit. 

Given its importance to the life support system, the agency deemed the system unacceptable as is. "We have to replace it to guarantee the safety of the crew," Kshatriya said. It's likely to take quite some time to resolve the issue as NASA will have to carefully test every change, but Kshatriya added the agency knows how to solve the problem. 

The Artemis delays follow the failure of a mission that sought to transport the first US commercial payload to the Moon. Astrobotic had hoped to make a soft landing on the lunar surface with its Peregrine lander. However, due to some post-launch issues (in particular, a propellant leak) the soft landing is no longer possible.

"Given the propellant leak, there is, unfortunately, no chance of a soft landing on the moon. However, we do still have enough propellant to continue to operate the vehicle as a spacecraft," Astrobotic wrote on X. "The team continues to work to find ways to extend Peregrine's operational life."

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nasa-delays-its-first-crewed-artemis-mission-until-september-2025-195019383.html?src=rss

Peregrine spacecraft experiences ‘anomaly’ that could threaten moon landing

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The Peregrine spacecraft has experienced an ‘anomaly’ that could endanger its planned moon landing, as reported by the BBC. Astrobotic, the private company behind the project, says this anomaly prevents the spacecraft from pointing its solar panels at the sun. In other words, the vehicle can’t charge its battery. Without power, the planned lunar landing for February might have to be canceled.

Astrobotic engineers are working the problem and will provide updates as they become available. The launch itself went off without a hitch early this morning, as the issue popped up during post-launch checks after communications had been established. The team behind the launch suggest the most likely cause of the anomaly is a problem with propulsion. Unfortunately, the engineers have a limited window of time to troubleshoot and fix the issue, as the spacecraft’s battery is currently “reaching operationally low levels.” There was a short comms breakdown, but it looks like that issue has been resolved.

The company has also stated that the propulsion issue led to a "critical loss of propellant." Astrobotic has planned for a wide variety of fault scenarios and could get everything squared away before too long, but it's looking less likely by the minute. The company says it's still trying to stabilize the propellant loss, but is investigating "alternative mission profiles" and trying to save as much science and data as it can. 

Peregrine is supposed to be the first American lunar lander to visit the moon in over 50 years. The United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan Centaur rocket carried the craft out of the atmosphere. If it manages to touch down on the moon, Peregrine will become the first commercial craft to land on any planetary body outside of Earth.

Though not directly affiliated with NASA, the Peregrine launch is part of the space agency’s new Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. To that end, it’s supposed to deliver five payloads to the moon for NASA to help prepare for the upcoming Artemis missions. It’s also carrying a number of payloads for commercial clients at a cost of $1.2 million per kilogram. This cargo includes everything from mini rovers and science instruments to art collections and physical representations of cryptocurrency.

There’s also human remains on board, including the DNA of science fiction author Arthur C. Clarke. Peregrine is scheduled to land on the moon’s nearside, which faces Earth, on February 23, though that timeframe could change or disappear altogether. Ahead of the launch, CLPS Program Manager Chris Culbert acknowledged that a lunar landing was not guaranteed, stating that “landing on the moon is extremely difficult.”

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/peregrine-spacecraft-experiences-anomaly-that-could-threaten-moon-landing-191221991.html?src=rss