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Here on Earth, we’re getting good enough at legged robots that we’re starting to see a transition from wheels to legs for challenging environments, especially environments with some uncertainty as to exactly what kind of terrain your robot might encounter. Beyond Earth, we’re still heavily reliant on wheeled vehicles, but even that might be starting to change. While wheels do pretty well on the Moon and on Mars, there are lots of other places to explore, like smaller moons and asteroids. And there, it’s not just terrain that’s a challenge: it’s gravity.
In low gravity environments, any robot moving over rough terrain risks entering a flight phase. Perhaps an extended flight phase, depending on how low the gravity is, which can be dangerous to robots that aren’t prepared for it. Researchers at the Robotic Systems Lab at ETH Zurich have been doing some experiments with the SpaceBok quadruped, and they’ve published a paper in IEEE T-RO showing that it’s possible to teach SpaceBok to effectively bok around in low gravity environments while using its legs to reorient itself during flight, exhibiting “cat-like jumping and landing” behaviors through vigorous leg-wiggling.
Also, while I’m fairly certain that “bok” is not a verb that means “to move dynamically in low gravity using legs,” I feel like that’s what it should mean. Sort of like pronk, except in space. Let’s make it so!
IEEE Spectrum: Why are legs ideal for mobility in low gravity environments?
Rudin: In low gravity environments, rolling on wheels becomes more difficult because of reduced traction. However, legs can exploit the low gravity and use high jumps to move efficiently. With high jumps, you can also clear large obstacles along the way, which is harder to do in higher gravity.
Comet 46P/Wirtanen was releasing an unusual amount of alcohol as it made its historic flyby of Earth two and a half years ago. That's one of the findings from the latest published study comet detectives conducted after observing 46P/Wirtanen with W. M. Keck Observatory on Maunakea in Hawai?i.
"46P/Wirtanen has one of the highest alcohol-to-aldehyde ratios measured in any comet to date," said Neil Dello Russo, a cometary scientist at Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory and co-author of the study. "This tells us information about how carbon, oxygen, and hydrogen molecules were distributed in the early solar system where Wirtanen formed."
Keck Observatory data also revealed a strange characteristic. Normally, as comets orbit closer to the Sun, the frozen particles in their nucleus heat up, then boil off, or sublimate, going directly from solid ice to gas, skipping the liquid phase. This process, called outgassing, is what produces the coma - a giant cloak of gas and dust glowing around the comet's nucleus. As the comet gets even closer to the Sun, solar radiation pushes some of the coma away from the comet, creating the tails.
With comet 46P/Wirtanen however, the team made a strange discovery: Another process beyond solar radiation is mysteriously heating up the comet.
"Interestingly, we found that the temperature measured for water gas in the coma did not decrease significantly with distance from the nucleus, which implies a heating mechanism," said co-author Erika Gibb, professor and chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at University of Missouri-St. Louis.
Gibb says there are a couple possible explanations. One is a chemical reaction where sunlight may be ionizing some atoms or molecules in the dense coma close to the nucleus, releasing high-velocity electrons. When these super-charged electrons collide with another molecule, they can transfer some of their kinetic energy and heat the water gas in the coma.
"Another possibility is there may be solid chunks of ice flying off of 46P/Wirtanen," said Gibb. "We've seen this in some comets visited by spacecraft, notably Hartley 2 during NASA's EPOXI mission. Those ice chunks tumble away from the nucleus and sublimate, releasing energy further out in the coma."
Space Marines?The Space Force Has its First Marines -- and Soldiers and Sailors
The U.S. Space Force announced it has selected its first small group of soldiers, sailors and Marines who will transfer permanently into the sixth military branch.www.military.com
Suomen puolustushallinto on mukana myös kuudessa muussa projektissa, joille komissio on myöntänyt rahoitusta. Projekteihin lukeutuvat muun muassa avaruustilannekuvan kehittämiseen liittyvät projektit SAURON sekä Odin’s Eye.
Space Marines?
Avaruusturismi alkamaisillaan. Alan kahden firman johtajat lisäävät uskoa teknologiaansa lentämällä avaruuteen oman yrityksensä ratkaisulla.
Ensimmäisenä Virgin Galacticin Richard Branson 11.7. Sen jälkeen Blue Originin Jeff Bezos 20.7.
Virgin Galactic to launch Richard Branson on July 11, aiming to beat Jeff Bezos to space
Branson is aiming to beat fellow billionaire Jeff Bezos to space, as the latter plans to launch with Blue Origin on July 20.www.cnbc.com