The Russian space agency has great plans to keep space cleaner. A recent report revealed Roscosmos is currently collaborating with another company from the country to build a really advanced mechanism. Namely, a sort of laser that should annihilate space debris and avoid further accidents between satellites.

 

Russia is Quite Secretive about the Space Debris Laser

 

There’s not too much information on this space debris laser, but several reports indicate it is in development. According to a state-owned media company, the business that will build the laser is a science corporation called Precision Instrument Systems. When asked about it, the company confirmed the rumors but offered no extra information on the matter.

Other rumors claimed a detailed report on the space debris laser should appear online on ResearchGate, on the page of the Russian Academy of Sciences. However, this didn’t happen, but a study on the matter might appear soon. The Russian authorities also refused to comment, but the company’s confirmation should be enough for us.

 

How Does the Space Debris Laser Work?

 

Fortunately, a few unofficial documents are talking about the space debris laser and how it works. In terms of power, it should get it from a base generator. Also, to completely remove space debris, it would use a process called laser ablation. In easier words, laser ablation links the energy of the laser with the material in question. As the two are coupled, the targeted material disappears.

It sounds easy, but researchers warned everyone the method hadn’t been explored enough. However, the Russian scientists might have found a way to keep laser ablation under control. Their initiative was more than welcome since space debris is one of the toughest issues of the moment.

According to the measurements in 2013, there were around 500,000 pieces of space junk floating dangerously around our planet. These pieces have the potential to strike satellites or maybe even spacecraft and produce colossal damage. Even if most pieces are small, they reach tremendous speeds that can be dangerous to anything. Therefore, the space debris laser initiative is more than welcome.

 

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And because having to deal with all the Cyberpunk 2077 and Elder Scroll VI was not enough, Bethesda said during E3 that another Wolfenstein game is on its way. Called Youngblood, the game, which is slated for launch in 2019, apparently focuses on the adventures of BJ’s twin daughters.

Wolfenstein Youngblood to Take Place in ‘80s Paris

According to Bethesda, the new Wolfenstein game will be launched at the beginning of 2019. Of course, the bar the company set for the series is quite high (remember the decapitation scene!), meaning that the upcoming title should probably have something in stock to quench the public’s thirst for some, good old unbridled mayhem.

Unfortunately, apart from the company’s announcement and the game’s launch trailer, we know very little about Wolfenstein Youngblood.

So, according to Youngblood’s timeline, the plot of the game takes place in the 1980s, 19 years after BJ Blazkowicz ignited the anti-fascist revolution.

Instead of focusing on yet another BJ adventure, the game will allow users to play as either Soph or Jess, BJ’s twin daughters. Yes, apparently BJ has two daughters, and they’re just as awesome as their Nazi-killing father.

Here’s yet another tantalizing detail about Youngblood’s story – 19 years after the revolution, the hero goes missing in Paris. And it’s up to Jess and Soph to uncover the whereabouts of BJ.

Gameplay-wise, there isn’t too much to say. From the presentation trailer, we can see that players will be able to wield basically the same type of weapons and, of course, crawl through Nazi-infested location.

One of the most interesting things we’ve learned from the trailer is that the player could be able to use the exo-battlesuit.

Conclusion

If you remember, in the New Order, Caroline Becker uses the strange metallic suit of armor found in the Da’at Yichud research facility to recover the use of her legs. It would seem that Jess and Soph could be using similar armor.

Image source: Flickr

Honeybees have always been held in high regard for their relentlessness and intellect. On the subject of mental prowess, a joint team of researchers from France and Australia has managed to prove that honeybees are capable of processing complex mathematical concepts, such as zero.

Honeybees, One of the Few Animals That Can Understand Nothingness

Adrian Dyer, the study’s author and a professor at the RMIT University in Melbourne, declared that the ability to understand zero or the concept of nothingness has always been the appanage of humans.

However, recent studies, including the one about honeybees, revealed that humans aren’t the only ones who can recognize, process, and understand complex mathematical concepts such as zero. Dolphins, primates, and some species of birds were found to understand what zero is.

Throughout the recent study, which brought together neuroscientists from Melbourne’s RMIT University and France’s University of Toulouse, the researchers ascertained that honeybees are more than capable of understanding zero.

In a series of experiment, Dyer and his team proved that honeybees are more than the sum of their parts. In comparison to the human brain, which has roughly 86,000 million neurons, a honeybee’s brain has only one million. From an anatomical standpoint, one could say that honeybees aren’t the sharpest tools in the shed.

However, the study proved otherwise. To test the insects’ mental prowess, Dyer and his team devised a special enclosure.

One by one, the insects were drawn into the enclosure with food. The chamber had several squares on them, each one containing a number of black dots.

Using food, Dyer and his team trained the bees to fly on the square which has the lowest number of black dots. More specifically, if the honeybee was drawn in an enclosure with two squares, one with four dots and the other one with three dots, they would fly toward the one with three dots.

Conclusion

In the final stage of the experiment, the scientists presented a challenge – a square with one dot and another one with zero dots. Interestingly enough, the honeybees were able to recognize the lowest between the two and fly toward the zero square.

Dyer said that the experiment could have ample ramifications, especially in machine learning.

Image source: Pexels

 

There is a portion of the population that started believing, once again, that the Earth is flat. Termed Flat Earthers, this growing segment of people recently held a convention to discuss scientific theories and other principles surrounding the Flat Earth Movement.

Among the latest developments is the so-called Pac-Man effect. This is reportedly the reason why aircraft don’t fly over the edge of the world.

 

Chomp, Chomp, Gone

 

The very first Flat Earth convention took place in West Midlands, England. Apparently, the big talk of the town was the recently dubbed Pac-Man effect.

This was used to explain how aircraft and other flying objects don’t simply fly off the edge of the world. According to this latest aspect, there is some sort of power that simply treats our “disc-shaped planet” like an ’80s video game.

Those that have played the classic video game Pac-Man will remember there were ports on each side of the screen. These would send Pac-Man to the opposite side of the maze.

This is apparently also the basic principle behind the new concept coming from Flat Earth theorists. As planes and other aircraft approach the edge of the flat Earth, they are transported to the other side of the world. This makes for a seamless transition to everyone involved.

 

 

The Future of the Flat Earth Theory

 

The belief that our planet is flat is far from being a new concept. Still, it has recently gained a new wave of followers and converts. Through the growth of the internet and the huge impact of social media on our daily lives, this type of movement has found new legs to walk on.

A new concept like the Pac-Man effect sounds pretty neat and seems to sum things up in a nice little package. However, it simply lacks the core science needed to back Flat Earth theorists in most cases.

Many consider that this movement will likely continue to persevere for a long time to come. This could happen despite its having been refuted many times throughout the centuries.

 

Image Source: Wikimedia

Lately, new technologies have joined the road to the eventual colonization of Mars. These most recent elements are a pair of advances in technology that will help settle on the Red Planet or at least try and do so.

The first one is an animated map of Mars’ surface created by ecologist Wieger Wamelink at Wageningen University This helps show factors that will be important for the location of a possible human colony.

 

The Two Projects that Helped Make the Map of Mars

 

Wageningen University and its “Food in Mars and Moon” project have been studying the soil of Mars since 2013. In doing so, scientists were eventually able to grow a variety of crops necessary for survival. These included tomatoes, carrots, and peas, among others.

This study helped provide some of the knowledge and experience necessary to put together a map of Mars. One that includes ratings of different minerals in the soil, climate, terrain, atmosphere, radiation, and nearby ice deposits. All of these elements must be suitable for crops to grow.

Interestingly, areas rated well for a possible human colony are places where Mars Rovers have often landed before.

The second technological advancement is a set of small, insect-sized mini-drones developed by NASA. These look like robot bees with cicada wings. They could be used for exploring the surface of the Red Planet and gathering samples.

The adorable tiny robot bees are aerodynamic and use a tiny fraction of the energy a rover does for exploration. This is mainly due to how their wings operate in Mars’ low gravity and thin atmosphere. The “Marsbees,” as they have been dubbed, are outfitted to gather samples of air. In doing so, they are searching for methane, a sign of life, on Mars.

The exploration of Mars seems looming, with some estimates projecting a human presence on the Red Planet as soon as the mid- to late-2020’s. Scientists and projects from all over the world are assisting in overcoming the many hurdles that might come with exploring and living on a planet so far from Earth.

 

Image Source: Pixabay 

 

Researchers have found living microbes in the Atacama Desert, according to a report released in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS).

Dirk Schulze-Makuch, an astrobiologist with the Technical University of Berlin, and his colleagues argue that the presence of the microbes in the driest desert on Earth indicates that it might be possible for similar lifeforms to survive on Mars.

Scientists Find Microbes in the Atacama, the Driest Desert on Earth

The Atacama Desert located in northern Chile stretches from the Pacific coast to around 621 miles inland. It is Earth’s driest desert with an annual rainfall of only 0.31 inches. Crusty salts cover much of its surface, and the soils resemble those found on Mars.

Schulze-Makuch and his colleagues collected samples from eight different locations over a three-year period. They began amassing samples in 2015, right after a very rare rainfall. Then, the researchers made visits to the sites in both 2016 and 2017. Some of the locations were on the coast, while others were further inland.

The study team sequenced all of the copies of a given gene used to identify microbes. In some cases, they recovered entire genomes. The scientists then performed a test to determine the percentage of DNA that came from living cells.

Lastly, they looked for signs of cellular activity like the existence of ATP (adenosine triphosphate). This is a molecule that cells use for energy.

Not surprisingly, the researchers discovered that the most diverse microbes came from the coast immediately after the rain. They did find microbes even in the driest, most inland areas about 9.8 inches underground.

Several genomes indicated that some coastal bacteria were actually reproducing and were thus thriving in their arid home. The scientists were able to identify some of these species by using a database.

Conclusion

The researchers found that the microbial communities from the coast resembled those in sandy soils. Those from the drier areas resembled communities found in salt flats or extremely arid deserts. The latter may hibernate in a spore form. The researchers believe that Mars, which does get moisture in the form of snow or fog, might also harbor such microbes.

Image Source: Pixabay 

When astronauts get lost in space, they don’t get to orientate themselves in the same way a drunk person would down a street. They’d float and float until the last trace of oxygen runs out, and then a simple spacewalk turns into a deathtrap. However,  a new type of technology is set to eliminate the threat of getting lost in the cold vacuum.

Engineering firm, Draper, has come up with a new type of spacesuit which is equipped with autonomous thrusters, however, the technological setpiece comes in the form of the „Take Me Home” button. The suit is designed to automatically guide astronauts back to their home base during an emergency in space. NASA is partially funding the project, while Draper is set to develop it.

Currently, NASA astronauts on board the ISS station have a lot of fail-safes during spacewalks. One of them is that they always have to stay connected to the space station when they’re outside in space suits. However, if they do get detached, they would use their SAFER jet backpacks. These backpacks are equipped with small thrusters that are capable of propelling an astronaut in the desired direction. One thing that sets Draper’s technology apart from NASA’s current equipment is its user-friendliness. The SAFER backpack is manually operated by the astronaut and he or she would have to undergo lots of hours of training in virtual reality to become proficient.

„You see how difficult it is to complete those operations and how much time it takes to become proficient at it,” said Kevin Duda, a space systems engineer at Draper.

This prompted Draper to automatize an astronaut’s orientation system and make the SAFER backpack obsolete.

According to Duda, the „Take Me Home” button uses a high-resolution camera to form points of reference around the astronaut as well as a unit to measure how a person is moving through space. The engineer said the system would also need a guidance system to point the astronaut in the right direction. Draper has been working on an algorithm to solve just that.

The exact mechanics have yet to be explained, as Draper just recently filed a patent for the „Take Me Home” button. As of now, the firm demonstrated how the technology might work in simulations.

Image Source: WikipediaCommons

Japan will be the first country to have an artificial meteor shower and now we know when it will happen. The Japanese start-up, Astro Live Experiences, is looking at a 2019 event which will be held over the Setouchi area of Hiroshima Prefecture.

ALE founder and CEO, Lena Okajima, announced the company’s first trial run for the artificial meteor shower will commence in a couple of years. Shooting stars are leftover debris from comets that create a bright trail of light once they enter Earth’s atmosphere. The company aims to recreate the natural event by releasing specially designed “pellets” into the atmosphere.

The feat will be accomplished by loading stacks of these pellets into ALE’s 23-inch satellite, located about 500 kilometers (310 miles) above Australia. ALE hopes the satellite will hold 300 to 400 pellets for a one year orbit around Earth.

Once the satellite releases the pellets, they will begin to burn at the moment they fall to a height of 60 kilometers (37 miles). The company claims the pellets will burn up in specific sections of the sky and can display them at any time of the day and in any color. Because the pellets are artificial, ALE can tinker with them to burn brighter and last longer. They also said each shooting star will be visible for at least 62 miles (100 km).

The first trial will be conducted at Setouchi in Hiroshima due to its clear skies and popularity. Okajima added she wants to reignite interest in the cosmos for young people.

“These days people are usually looking down at their smartphone. I want to make people look up again,” she said.

When they’re not providing the world artificial meteor showers, ALE is using the satellite to study physics in the upper atmosphere.

The company has yet to confirm if they will use their flashy spectacle during the 2020 Olympics.

Image Source: WikipediaCommons

A telescope at Caltech has been equipped with a new robotic camera capable of capturing hundreds of thousands of stars and galaxies in a single shot. Astronomers have now been able to successfully test the camera for the first time.

The Zwicky Transient Facility (ZTF) first went live on Monday although the telescope was functional from 1948. Astronomers have repurposed the 1.2 meter Samuel Oschin Telescope at the Palomar Observatory near San Diego. Before it was given a new purpose, Oschin took pictures of the night sky on glass photographic plates.

Set for daily scans, the ZTF will capture large portions of the Northern Sky, looking for shifts in brightness otherwise known as transients. These include black holes, asteroids, comets, and supernovas. The ZTF’s upgraded camera will also be able to take twice as many exposures each night.

The telescope is named after Fritz Zwicky, Caltech’s first astrophysicist. He was responsible for the discovery of 120 supernovae.

According to assistant professor of astronomy at UMD Suvi Gezari, the ZTF will be key to the observation and classification of cosmic events previously unseen by older telescope models.

“Data from ZTF may also offer a rare, real-time glimpse into the formation of a…supermassive black hole”

Surveys conducted by the ZTF represent a huge step forward in astronomy, according to undergraduate director of astronomy at UMD, Melissa Hayes.

Discoveries involving fast-moving cosmic masses were based on chance in the past. However, astronomers have adapted and improved existing instruments to better observe the mysteries of the universe. The ZTF is able to catch fainter and more distant objects.

Institutions from Germany, Taiwan, and Sweden are also in charge of the ZTF.

The ZTF survey is scheduled to begin in February of 2018 and the project itself will be ready by the end of 2020.

Image Source: WikipediaCommons