Tag Archives: science

NASA’s Ingenuity Helicopter has flown on Mars for the final time

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After three years of service, NASA's Ingenuity Helicopter has flown on Mars for the last time. Earlier this month, during its 72nd flight, Ingenuity stopped communicating with the Perseverance rover. Although NASA later reestablished contact with the helicopter, it emerged that at least one of Ingenuity's carbon fiber rotor blades was damaged during a landing on January 18th. The helicopter is upright and is still in contact with ground controllers, but it's no longer capable of flight.

Ingenuity far outlasted its original planned lifespan. NASA designed the helicopter to carry out up to five test flights over 30 days. But it stayed in service for over three years. Ingenuity flew over 14 times farther than originally anticipated and it had a total flight time of over two hours.

“The historic journey of Ingenuity, the first aircraft on another planet, has come to end,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement. “That remarkable helicopter flew higher and farther than we ever imagined and helped NASA do what we do best — make the impossible, possible. Through missions like Ingenuity, NASA is paving the way for future flight in our solar system and smarter, safer human exploration to Mars and beyond.”

After Ingenuity's initial five flights, NASA decided to keep the helicopter running as an operations demonstration. It scouted ahead for Perseverance.

On January 18, the Ingenuity team planned a short vertical flight so they could pinpoint the helicopter's location after it had to make an emergency landing on its previous jaunt. The chopper reached a height of 40 feet and hovered for 4.5 seconds before descending at a rate of 3.3 feet per second. However, it lost contact with Perseverance when it was about three feet above the surface.

It's not clear how the rotor blade sustained damage. NASA's looking into whether the blade struck the surface. Perseverance is too far away to take a look at Ingenuity itself. The chopper's own camera spotted damage on the shadow of a rotor blade.

An image that NASA's Ingenuity Helicopter captured of the shadow of a rotor blade shows some damage that it has sustained.
NASA/JPL-Caltech

The hardy helicopter endured tough terrain, a dead sensor, dust storms (after which was able to clean itself) and a winter on Mars. The Ingenuity team will wind down the helicopter's operations after carrying out final tests and downloading the last data and imagery from its memory. After making history as the first aircraft from Earth to conduct a powered, controlled flight on another planet, all Ingenuity can do now is rest easy on the surface of Mars. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nasas-ingenuity-helicopter-has-flown-on-mars-for-the-final-time-204004656.html?src=rss

Japan’s SLIM lunar spacecraft landed upside down on the moon

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Shortly after Japan’s space agency became the fifth country to land a spacecraft on the surface of the moon, its scientists discovered the Smart Lander for Investigating Moon (SLIM) unfortunately touched down upside down. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) said that the SLIM landed on the lunar surface on January 20 but it knew it might have bigger problems due to an issue with power generation. Just hours after making landfall, JAXA expected the power to run out, before it ultimately did.

SLIM met the moon’s surface about 55 meters east of the original target landing site, JAXA said. The agency did get all of the technical information related to its navigation prior to landing and ultimately becoming stationary on the lunar surface. JAXA captured photos of the SLIM from its The Lunar Excursion Vehicle 2, its fully autonomous robot currently exploring the moon.

The reason behind the main engine malfunctioning is under investigation by the space agency. There is a slim chance for regeneration because the solar cells that power the spacecraft are facing west, meaning there is a chance for SLIM recovery if enough light from the sun reaches the cells as more time passes. The SLIM JAXA team took to X earlier this week to write, “We are preparing for recovery.” The agency said it will “take the necessary preparations to gather more technical and scientific data from the spacecraft.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/japans-slim-lunar-spacecraft-landed-upside-down-on-the-moon-202819728.html?src=rss

MIT researchers have developed a rapid 3D-printing technique that uses liquid metal

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Researchers at MIT have developed a rapid 3D-printing technique that uses liquid metal to allow for extremely fast prints. The process can manufacture large aluminum components in minutes, whereas many pre-existing techniques would take hours to finish the same build. The technology has already been used to create table legs, chair frames and related furniture parts.

It’s called liquid metal printing (LMP) and involves directing molten aluminum along a predefined path into a bed of tiny glass beads. These beads quickly harden into a 3D structure. Researchers say the new process is at least ten times faster than comparable metal manufacturing techniques.

However, there is one major caveat. This process sacrifices resolution for speed and scale. This is why the researchers have used it to create low-resolution items like chair legs and not, say, intricate parts with complex geometries. MIT researchers say this trade-off still makes the technology useful for creating “components of larger structures” that don’t require extremely fine details. This includes furniture parts, as mentioned above, but also components for construction and industrial design.

Despite the resolution downgrade, parts made using LMP are still durable and can withstand post-print machining, like drilling and boring. The folks behind this technology say the builds are much more durable than those built with wire arc additive manufacturing, which is a pre-existing metal printing method. This is because LMP keeps the material molten throughout the entire process, lessening the chances of cracking and warping.

The researchers recommend combining LMP with other techniques for jobs that require both speed and a high resolution. “Most of our built world — the things around us like tables, chairs, and buildings — doesn’t need extremely high resolution”, said Skylar Tibbits, a senior author of a paper that introduced the project.

It’s also worth noting that this printing method doesn’t require aluminum. It can work with other metals. The researchers chose aluminum due to its popularity in construction and the fact that it’s easily recycled.

The folks behind this tech hope to keep iterating on the concept to improve heating consistency, to prevent sticking, and allow for greater control over the molten metal. The team’s been having issues with larger nozzle diameters leading to irregular prints, which is something that needs to be worked out. Tibbits said the method could eventually become a “game-changer in metal manufacturing.”

Despite slightly falling out of favor in the commercial space, 3D printing has grown in leaps and bounds in recent years. Researchers have developed a tiny 3D printer that actually gets inserted into the body to repair and clean damaged tissue. Scientists also recently printed a working piece of the human heart.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mit-researchers-have-developed-a-rapid-3d-printing-technique-that-uses-liquid-metal-194113455.html?src=rss

NASA says it’s reestablished contact with the Ingenuity Mars helicopter

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After a short period of worrying silence, NASA said on Saturday night that it was able to regain contact with the Ingenuity helicopter. The autonomous aircraft unexpectedly ceased communications with the Perseverance rover, which relays all transmissions between Ingenuity and Earth, on Thursday during its 72nd flight on Mars. It had already been acting up prior to this, having cut its previous flight short for an unknown reason, and NASA intended to do a systems check during the latest ascent.

The space agency said in an update posted on X that it’s now reviewing the data from Ingenuity to understand what happened. Perseverance picked up its signal after the team instructed it to perform “long-duration listening sessions.” Ingenuity has experienced blackouts before, as recently as last year, and was able to return to flight. But it’s too early to say if that will be the case this time. The mini helicopter is already running well past the original timeline of its mission.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nasa-says-its-reestablished-contact-with-the-ingenuity-mars-helicopter-165728606.html?src=rss

NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter has gone silent on Mars

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NASA is trying to figure out how to reach its Ingenuity Mars helicopter after losing contact with the craft earlier this week. During its 72nd flight — a “quick pop-up” to an altitude of about 40 feet — NASA says Ingenuity stopped communicating with the Perseverance rover before it was meant to. It went quiet on Thursday, and as of Friday afternoon, NASA still hadn’t heard from it.

Perseverance serves the go-between for all communications to and from the helicopter; Ingenuity sends information to Perseverance, which then passes it on to Earth, and vice versa. According to NASA, the small helicopter completed the ascent as planned, but ceased communications while on its way back down. “The Ingenuity team is analyzing available data and considering next steps to reestablish communications with the helicopter,” NASA said in a status update on Friday. Ingenuity had previously ended a flight earlier than it was supposed to, and Thursday’s jaunt was meant to “check out the helicopter’s systems.”

Ingenuity has been on the red planet since 2021, when it arrived with the Perseverance rover. And it’s far exceeded its mission goals. NASA originally hoped the experimental helicopter would be able to complete a handful of flights. It went on to fly more than 20 times within its first year in operation. The space agency officially extended its mission in 2022, and it’s since executed dozens more more successful flights. Ingenuity is the first aircraft to take flight from the surface of Mars.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/nasas-ingenuity-helicopter-has-gone-silent-on-mars-195746735.html?src=rss

Take a look at the full asteroid Bennu sample in all its glory

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Who doesn’t love showing off their collection of cool rocks? NASA was finally able to get into the asteroid Bennu sample container last week after struggling with it for a couple of months, and now, it’s sharing a look at what’s inside. The space agency published a high-resolution image of the newly opened Touch-and-Go-Sample Acquisition Mechanism (TAGSAM) on Friday, revealing all the dust and rocks OSIRIS-REx scraped off the asteroid’s surface.

The image is massive, so you can zoom in to see even the finer details of the sample. Check out the full-sized version on NASA’s website. There’s an abundance of material for scientists to work with, and as OSIRIS-REx team member Lindsay Keller said back in September, they plan to make the most of microanalytical techniques to “really tear it apart, almost down to the atomic scale.” Asteroid Bennu, estimated to be about 4.5 billion years old, may hold clues into the formation of our solar system and how the building blocks of life first came to Earth.

Scientists have already discovered signs of carbon and water in the excess material they found on the outside of the TAGSAM. While they’d hoped to get at least 2.1 ounces (60 grams) of regolith from the asteroid, OSIRIS-REx was able to grab much more. The team obtained 2.48 ounces (70.3 grams) just from the “bonus” material accumulated on the sample hardware. NASA plans to spend the next two years analyzing portions of the sample, but the majority of it will be preserved for future studies and to be shared with other scientists.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/take-a-look-at-the-full-asteroid-bennu-sample-in-all-its-glory-161309568.html?src=rss

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

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