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DLR 'Mole' deployed on surface of Mars![]() Cologne, Germany (SPX) Feb 14, 2019 It stands vertically on flat ground, ready for its historic mission. At 19:18 CET on 12 February 2019, the German Aerospace Center Heat Flow and Physical Properties Package (HP3) or 'Mole' was deployed on the Martian surface using the NASA InSight mission's robotic arm. In the coming weeks, the remote-controlled penetrometer is expected to make space history by becoming the first probe to reach a depth of up to five meters in the Martian subsurface. Its goal is to measure the temperature and therm ... read more |
Mars Rover Opportunity Ends Mission After 15 YearsIthaca NY (SPX) Feb 13, 2019 The Mars rover Opportunity, NASA's robotic geologist fitted with an array of tools to search for evidence of water, ended its mission Feb. 13 - three weeks after its 15th anniversary and long past i ... more
NASA announces demise of Opportunity roverWashington (AFP) Feb 14, 2019 During 14 years of intrepid exploration across Mars, it advanced human knowledge by confirming that water once flowed on the red planet - but NASA's Opportunity rover has analyzed its last soil sample. ... more
Trump orders government to prioritize artificial intelligenceWashington (AFP) Feb 12, 2019 President Donald Trump on Monday ordered the US administration to give greater priority to artificial intelligence, a move seen as firing up a battle for leadership with China. ... more
IBM says AI debate loss is still a winWashington (AFP) Feb 12, 2019 IBM conceded Tuesday its artificial intelligence-powered Project Debater lost a competition to a human debate champion but said the experience was an important milestone in efforts to get computers to master human language. ... more |
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| Previous Issues | Feb 13 | Feb 12 | Feb 11 | Feb 08 | Feb 07 |
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Getting a grip on human-robot cooperationPisa, Italy (SPX) Feb 14, 2019 There is a time when a successful cooperation between humans and robots has decisive importance: it is in the precise moment that one "actor" is required to hand an object to another "actor" and, th ... more
Pope talks AI ethics with Microsoft head SmithVatican City (AFP) Feb 13, 2019 Pope Francis debated the potential threats artificial intelligence poses to humanity with the head of Microsoft on Wednesday, ahead of a robotics summit at the Vatican, it said. ... more
Trumps orders government to prioritize artificial intelligenceWashington (AFP) Feb 11, 2019 President Donald Trump on Monday ordered the US administration to give greater priority to artificial intelligence, a move seen as firing up a battle for leadership with China. ... more
SoftBank fund invests big in self-driving deliveriesSan Francisco (AFP) Feb 11, 2019 A Silicon Valley startup working on self-driving delivery vehicles on Monday announced nearly a billion dollars in fresh funding from the SoftBank Vision Fund. ... more
Bezos, world's richest man, shows won't be pushed aroundSan Francisco (AFP) Feb 8, 2019 He built one of the world's most valuable companies from scratch, becoming the richest person on the planet. ... more |
![]() Recreating space on Earth - two facilities join ESA's platforms for spaceflight research
InSight's Seismometer Now Has a Cozy Shelter on MarsPasadena CA (JPL) Feb 05, 2019 For the past several weeks, NASA's InSight lander has been making adjustments to the seismometer it set on the Martian surface on Dec. 19. Now it's reached another milestone by placing a domed shiel ... more |
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A reconfigurable soft actuatorBoston MA (SPX) Feb 05, 2019 Mechanical systems, such as engines and motors, rely on two principal types of motions of stiff components: linear motion, which involves an object moving from one point to another in a straight lin ... more
First private spacecraft shoots for the moonColumbus OG (The Conversation) Feb 04, 2019 "Moon of Israel" is an epic 1924 film from the golden era of silent movies, and helped launch the directing career of Michael Curtiz, of "Casablanca" fame. Sequels seldom live up to the original. ... more
Engineers build a soft robotics perception system inspired by humansSan Diego CA (SPX) Feb 01, 2019 An international team of researchers has developed a perception system for soft robots inspired by the way humans process information about their own bodies in space and in relation to other objects ... more
Building Trusted Human-Machine PartnershipsWashington DC (SPX) Feb 01, 2019 A key ingredient in effective teams - whether athletic, business, or military - is trust, which is based in part on mutual understanding of team members' competence to fulfill assigned roles. When i ... more
A step closer to self-aware machinesNew York NY (SPX) Feb 01, 2019 Robots that are self-aware have been science fiction fodder for decades, and now we may finally be getting closer. Humans are unique in being able to imagine themselves - to picture themselves in fu ... more |
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Hughes satellite modems power beyond-line-of-sight comms for UAVs Germantown MD (SPX) Feb 11, 2019
Hughes Network Systems, LLC (HUGHES), the global leader in broadband satellite networks and services, has announced the first shipments of its specialized, multiband HM400 SATCOM modems to General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI), powering beyond-line-of-sight communications for their next-generation Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) known as the MQ-9B SkyGuardian.
Customized to m ... more |
Next-generation optics in just two minutes of cooking time Lausanne, Switzerland (SPX) Feb 12, 2019
Optical circuits are set to revolutionize the performance of many devices. Not only are they 10-100 times faster than electronic circuits, but they also consume a lot less power. Within these circuits, light waves are controlled by extremely thin surfaces called metasurfaces that concentrate the waves and guide them as needed. The metasurfaces contain regularly spaced nanoparticles that can modu ... more |
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Quantum strangeness gives rise to new electronics Tempe AZ (SPX) Feb 12, 2019
Noting the startling advances in semiconductor technology, Intel co-founder Gordon Moore proposed that the number of transistors on a chip will double each year, an observation that has been born out since he made the claim in 1965. Still, it's unlikely Moore could have foreseen the extent of the electronics revolution currently underway.
Today, a new breed of devices, bearing unique prope ... more |
Storage of nuclear waste a 'global crisis': report Paris (AFP) Jan 30, 2019
Nuclear waste is piling up around the world even as countries struggle to dispose of spent fuel that will remain highly toxic for many thousands of years, Greenpeace detailed in a report Wednesday.
An analysis of waste storage facilities in seven countries with nuclear power revealed that several were near saturation, the anti-nuclear NGO said.
All these nations also confronted other pro ... more |
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Tunisia IS-linked children must be brought home: HRW Tunis (AFP) Feb 12, 2019 Officials in Tunisia have been "dragging their feet" on efforts to repatriate Tunisian children of Islamic State group members from camps in Syria, Iraq and Libya, Human Rights Watch said Tuesday.
The rights group, quoting Tunisia's ministry of women and children, said about 200 children and 100 women claiming Tunisian nationality were being held in "squalid" camps abroad.
Many of the ch ... more |
S.Africa imposes severe power cuts ahead of election Johannesburg (AFP) Feb 11, 2019
South Africa on Monday introduced its most severe electricity rationing in nearly five years, presenting President Cyril Ramaphosa with a major political challenge just months ahead of a May general election.
The debt-laden state power utility Eskom is at the centre of the country's economic troubles and has been hit by allegations of government graft.
Ramaphosa who last week admitted th ... more |
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Upcycling plastic bags into battery parts Washington DC (SPX) Feb 14, 2019
Plastic bag pollution has become a huge environmental problem, prompting some cities and countries to heavily tax or ban the sacks. But what if used plastic bags could be made into higher-value products?
Now, researchers have reported a new method to convert plastic bags into carbon chips that could be used as anodes for lithium-ion batteries. They report their results in ACS Omega. See it ... more |
China improves Long March-6 rocket for growing commercial launches Beijing (XNA) Feb 12, 2019
China announced Monday that it is developing the modified version of the Long March-6 rocket to add four solid boosters to increase its carrying capacity.
The improved medium-left carrier rocket will be sent into space by 2020, according to the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology under the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, which designed the rocket.
The Long ... more |
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Five future astronauts and a teacher you need to know Washington DC (SPX) Feb 13, 2019
All five of the women in NASA's latest class of astronaut candidates followed a passion for adventure and science to get where they are today and are inspirations for the next generation of NASA scientists.
Kayla Barron, Zena Cardman, Jasmin Moghbeli, Loral O'Hara and Jessica Watkins are nearing the end of two years of intensive training that began in August 2017. They were selected out of ... more |
NASA to make final attempt to contact Mars Opportunity Rover Washington (AFP) Feb 13, 2019
US space agency NASA will make one final attempt to contact its Opportunity Rover on Mars late Tuesday, eight months after it last made contact.
The agency also said it would hold a briefing Wednesday, during which it will likely officially declare the end of the mission.
Opportunity landed on Mars in 2004 and covered 28 miles (45 kilometers) on the planet, securing its place in history ... more |
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Raptor engine beats Russian RD-180 record in combustion chamber pressure says Musk Moscow (Sputnik) Feb 12, 2019
The new methane-fueled Raptor engine developed by US SpaceX aerospace company for its Starship interplanetary craft has outperformed the Russian RD-180 rocket engine in terms of pressure level in the combustion chamber, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on Monday.
"Raptor reached 268.9 bar [approximately 274.2 kilograms of power per square centimeter], exceeding prior record held by the awesome Ru ... more |
Ten towns hit by river pollution from Brazil dam disaster Rio De Janeiro (AFP) Feb 13, 2019
Ten towns in southeast Brazil are suffering river pollution after a dam collapse at a mine nearly three weeks ago that killed 166 people and left 155 missing, presumed dead, according to officials.
Mineral-laced sludge from the disaster near the town of Brumadinho has contaminated 75 miles (120 kilometers) of the Paraopeba river, impacting the riverside towns, the Institute for Water Managem ... more |
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Teaching self-driving cars to predict pedestrian movement Ann Arbor MI (SPX) Feb 13, 2019
By zeroing in on humans' gait, body symmetry and foot placement, University of Michigan researchers are teaching self-driving cars to recognize and predict pedestrian movements with greater precision than current technologies.
Data collected by vehicles through cameras, LiDAR and GPS allow the researchers to capture video snippets of humans in motion and then recreate them in 3D computer s ... more |
Nano drops a million times smaller than a teardrop explodes 19th century theory Warwick UK (SPX) Feb 13, 2019
Droplets emanating from a molecular "nano-tap" would behave very differently from those from a household tap 1 million times larger - researchers at the University of Warwick have found. This is potentially crucial step for a number of emerging nano technologies, e.g., manufacture of nano-sized drug particles, lab-on-chip devices for in situ diagnostics, and 3D printers capable of nanoscale reso ... more |
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Next-generation optics in just two minutes of cooking time Lausanne, Switzerland (SPX) Feb 12, 2019
Optical circuits are set to revolutionize the performance of many devices. Not only are they 10-100 times faster than electronic circuits, but they also consume a lot less power. Within these circuits, light waves are controlled by extremely thin surfaces called metasurfaces that concentrate the waves and guide them as needed. The metasurfaces contain regularly spaced nanoparticles that can modu ... more |
Australia cattle giant warns of 'extreme losses' from floods Sydney (AFP) Feb 12, 2019
Australia's largest cattle company has warned of "extreme losses" after record-breaking floods, as producers said more than 300,000 cows were drowned or washed away in the vast continent's northeast.
After more than five years of drought, heavy rains over an almost two-week period turned dusty and parched land in Queensland state into vast swathes of mud that bogged down already weakened cat ... more |
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