Technology Trends

Two days ago, I wrote about the 3-D imaging technology of the Canadian-based company Neptec used to build the eyes of the space shuttle and to help determine the importance of external damages to Discovery. Iain Christie, director of research and development at Neptec, sent me some images of the scans that were taken on orbit. These images are not yet on the company’s web site and, to my knowledge, haven’t appeared anywhere else. After analysis of these images, NASA concluded that the damages to the shuttle wing and to its nose landing gear door didn’t represent a threat to the shuttle on re-entry. Read more to see these images.

The three images below — and their captions — are reproduced here courtesy of Neptec. Please note that I slightly modified some parameters of the images such as contrast or brightness because of their reduced sizes.

[This is] a false colour Laser Camera system (LCS) scan of an area of the underside of the shuttle wing. The analysis shows a small area of missing tile material. The scan is from the shuttle wing “chine” area near where the wing joins the body of the shuttle and about five tile rows forward of the trailing edge of the wing. The image is colour coded such that deeper damage is coloured red. Based on analysis of this data NASA concluded that this area does not represent a threat to the shuttle on re-entry.

[And this is a] 3D wireframe model of the area of damaged tile on the underside of the shuttle wing. The model is colour coded to show the depth of the damage. The LCS data was collected from approximately 4 meters away and is accurate to about 2 millimeters. Based on this data NASA mission managers were able to determine that this damage is not a threat to the shuttle during re-entry.

[Finally, here is a] false colour LCS scan of an area near the shuttle’s nose landing gear door. The analysis shows a small area of missing tile material. The image is colour coded such that deeper damage is coloured red. Based on analysis of this data NASA concluded that this area does not represent a threat to the shuttle on re-entry.

You’ll find soon larger (and much nicer) versions of these images — along with other details — on Neptec web site.

And now, let’s hope that NASA correctly interpreted these scans and that the Discovery astronauts come back safely next Monday.

Source: Neptec, August 4, 2005

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Now that Discovery astronaut Steve Robinson has successfully removed two pieces of fabric poking out of the shuttle’s heat shield, a question remains: how did NASA discover these anomalies in the first place? In this article, Forbes.com writes that NASA can say thank you to a private Canadian company, Neptec, and its Laser Camera system (LCS). Neptec is working with NASA for ten years now, but it was the first time that its vision technology was used for external damage assessment of a shuttle. As NASA says it may cancel some future shuttle flights, Neptec plans to implement its 3-D imaging technology in military situations and on the battlefield. But read more…

Let’s first look at some images of this laser camera system (Credits for images and captions below: Neptec).

Neptec’s Laser Camera System (LCS) will be deployed at the tip of a new 50-foot (15-metre) inspection boom being deployed for the first time aboard Discovery for the Return to Flight mission. Manufactured by another Canadian company, MD Robotics, the boom is stored on the opposite side of the Shuttle’s cargo bay from the Canadarm.

This 3-D rendering depicts Neptec’s Laser Camera System, deployed on the Canadarm, scanning the nose cone of the Space Shuttle Discovery for potential damage to the Shuttle’s heat shield tiles. NASA is harnessing Neptec’s technology to detect tiny fractures in the Shuttle’s heat shield before the crew risks re-entry.

[And below is] a close up of Neptec’s Laser Camera System prior to the application of reflective Teflon tape. The picture shows the large radiator on the top of the enclosure that ensures the scanner will not overheat on orbit.

The top image was extracted from this Macromedia Flash animation. Larger versions of the two other images are available here and there. Finally, you’ll find other images in the gallery accessible from this page.

Now, here are some technical details given by the Forbes.com article.

Discovery’s “bread-box sized” laser camera system (LCS) is one example of Neptec’s advanced technology. It doesn’t relay information through video. Instead,it transmits the information to a computer, which then creates a model accurate to a few millimeters. Unlike radar or video imaging, the model can integrate the data according to set parameters: It “knows” if something looks different or has changed.

Iain Christie, director of research and development at Neptec, says it is the equivalent of “intelligence in three dimensions.”

As I noticed above, future shuttle flights have been put on hold — and might be canceled for a while. So what Neptec will do if it loses a customer like NASA?

These highly accurate 3-D image scans can be implemented in numerous military situations as well. Next-generation, truly “smart” laser cameras have already performed well in testing. On the battlefield, they could identify approaching vehicles to prevent friendly fire incidents and could alert soldiers to irregularities in surrounding environments. “With the IEDs [improvised explosive device] we see being used, this could warn them of even small changes,” Christie said.

Neptec is a small company with a revenue of about $20 million in 2005, but it has big projects, with both NASA, to guide an unmanned spaceship to fix the Hubble telescope, and with the military, with new sensors which have “immense defense capabilities.”

Finally, if you want to know more about Neptec and the Shuttle program, please check this page.

Sources: Danit Lidor, Forbes.com, August 1, 2005; and various web sites

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And remember that comments are no longer accepted here. If you want to tell me something about this post, please go to the bottom right of this page and send me an e-mail.

It’s now commonly admitted that our appetite for fossil fuels is having a strong influence on the Earth’s climate — and our future. But what about the concentration of humans in urban areas? Today, 50% of the world’s population is living on about one percent of Earth’s surface. Can this extreme concentration lead to other effects on our climate and weather? In ‘Satellites and the city,’ NASA says that it can help to provide an answer. “Our research suggests that, using satellite data and enhanced models, we will be able to answer several critical questions about how urbanization may impact climate change 10, 25 or even 100 years from now,” says for example a NASA scientist from the Goddard Space Flight Center. But read more…

“More and more people live in cities. This means that cities will grow rapidly over the next several decades. Evidence continues to mount that cities affect the climate,” said J. Marshall Shepherd, Deputy Project Scientist of the Global Precipitation Measurement Mission at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md.

Shepherd and co-author Menglin Jin, a research scientist at the University of Maryland-College Park, suggest that satellite-observed urban information is extremely useful for advancing our ability to simulate urban effects in climate models. They go on further to propose that satellite data is the only feasible way to represent the expanse of global urban surfaces and related changes to the Earth’s surface, vegetation and aerosols.

Below are some images taken by the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) satellite (Credit for images and legends: NASA).

This shows the MODIS land cover classification in southeastern US (near Atlanta). Red color is for Urban Land Build-up (Copied from Jin and Shepherd 2005 with original image source from Michael King).

[And here you can see] the global distribution of fine aerosol optical thickness derived from MODIS measurements on the Terra platform for September 2000. The large values over Southeast Asia, India, Europe, and the United States reflect urban pollution. The large values in the Southern Hemisphere are due to biomass burning.

The two scientists think that urban landscapes are changing the physical processes of land surfaces, such as thermal conductivity, and also adding new characteristics to our land and our atmosphere.

Structures like the Empire State Building in New York City can change the basic wind flow in and around cities that can alter air quality, temperature, cloud distribution and precipitation patterns. It is increasingly evident that such atmospheric changes near cities can be captured by NASA satellites such as Aqua, Landsat, Terra, and the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission (TRMM).

This research work has been published by the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society in May 2005 (Vol. 86, No. 5, pp. 681–689). Strangely, no abstract is available, but here is a link to the full paper named “Inclusion of Urban Landscape in a Climate Model: How Can Satellite Data Help?” (PDF format, 9 pages, 701 KB).

For more recent references about this subject, you also should read “Urban Climate Modeling,” published by NASA on April 27, 2005.

Finally, I want to add one more paper to your reading list. Its title is “Urban aerosols and their variations with clouds and rainfall: A case study for New York and Houston” and here is a link to the full paper (PDF format, 12 pages, 701 KB).

I’ve worked with many meteorologists during my life, but I’m not sure if they’re ready to include these minuscule urban lands into their climate models. Any thoughts?

Sources: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center news release, via EurekAlert!, July 21, 2005; and various web sites

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Software Defined Radio (SDR) is an emerging wireless technology which allows an electronic device equipped with a radio chip to be remotely reconfigurable to perform new functions via software downloads. With SDR, instead of having an expensive multifunction device, your cheap cellphone would automatically morph into a camera or an MP3 player. NASA wants to use this technology to reconfigure its satellites on the fly to perform new tasks. And its engineers have already built an SDR testbed allowing the quick development of new navigation algorithms. These new communication scheme could be used within 3 to 5 years in SDR-enabled space missions. Read more…

For example, imagine the benefits for a mission such as NASA’s A-Train: below is an illustration showing the satellites of NASA’s A-Train formation.

A group of satellites could efficiently communicate directly with SDR, rather than using ground stations and uplinks. The A-train, shown above, is a constellation of 5 satellites that will collect complimentary data, and is an example of a network that would benefit from SDR technology. (Credit: Alex McClung, NASA).

[For more information about this 'train' of satellites and details about individual ones, you can read a previous story, "'Take the A-Train', from NASA."]

Please read the NASA’s article if you want to know more about the technology and let’s focus here about NASA’s plans.

Researchers at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., are so enthusiastic about SDR that they have recently built an SDR test-bed — providing the necessary foundation for investigating SDR technologies and techniques. This test-bed allows for the rapid, low-cost development of communication and navigation algorithms that will be used in upcoming technology experiments, and eventually, in missions.

engineers could reconfigure future SDR-enabled NASA missions at will, allowing formerly independent satellites to be linked and give a more complete picture of a unique scientific event. In other applications, two satellites could interact and share information, or an older satellite could be updated with a new function and mission, extending its life and usefulness.

And when will this happen? Surprisingly, in a very near future.

“Many of our current satellites were developed with a fixed set of data rates and modulations, so they can only talk to the ground or the space network,” Jason Soloff, an SDR technologist. “SDR would allow us to switch between a ground network and a space network with simple uploads, making the satellite or instrument much more flexible.”

“The first true SDR components should make spaceflights within the next 3 to 5 years,” said Soloff — around the same time experts believe that everyday devices could start becoming SDR-enabled.

For more information about Software Defined Radio, you can visit these pages about SDR for NASA and a SDR definition.

Sources: Katie Lorentz, NASA’s Langley Research Center, June 24, 2005; and various web sites

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In NASA’s language, a nanosatellite-class system is a small spacecraft, but it is not a nanotechnology-based device. In fact, its new ‘Mini AERCam’ robotic cameras are small, free flying vehicles capable of performing inspection and viewing missions in space. But these spherical-shaped cameras have a diameter of 7.5 inches and weigh about 10 pounds. These cameras are designed to help astronauts and ground crews see outside the spacecraft during a mission. During human space flights, like the ones of the International Space Station (ISS), their use will suppress the need for astronauts to walk in space. And these cameras, tested on the ground today, should be soon deployed in space to watch human-based missions in space. Read more…

Here is the introduction of the NASA’s news release about these small robotic cameras.

Big things can come in small packages, and engineers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center are making progress on a tiny spacecraft that holds major promise for future exploration.

Work on the volleyball-sized Miniature Autonomous Extravehicular Robotic Camera (Mini AERCam) moved forward with successful initial tests on its docking system. The Mini AERCam is designed to help astronauts and ground crews see outside the spacecraft during a mission. During ground-based testing, the device was able to work with the docking system that serves as an exterior home base for housing and refueling the nanosatellite.

So this Mini AERCam is ‘volleyball-sized,’ quite bigger than nanotechnology-based devices according to the ‘official’ definition of nanotechnology — less than 100 nanometers.

Below is a diagram showing the Mini AERCam external features (Credit: NASA).

Two cameras are aligned with the +X direction of the vehicle. One camera provides NTSC-quality color video, and the other camera can be used for high-resolution still images, when selected. A third color video camera is positioned in the +Y direction for an orthogonal view.

And here is an exploded view of the Mini AERCam (Credit: NASA).

The vehicle is designed with a central ring that houses the power and propulsion system. The batteries are lithium-ion and provide six hours of operational time. The propulsion system is designed for cold-gas xenon, which packs more densely than nitrogen, but is compatible with low-cost nitrogen in the current ground test configuration. Attitude and position control are achieved with the use of twelve thrusters, distributed across four thruster pods around the central ring. The batteries are rechargeable and a port is provided for refueling.

Now, let’s go back to the NASA’s news release to discover how these cameras can be deployed in space and docked outside of a bigger spacecraft.

Mini AERCam could be deployed and retrieved many times during a single space mission, with the use of a hangar-based docking system located on the exterior of the vehicle. The free-flyer portion of the docking system includes a vision-based system for autonomous navigation and an electromagnetic capture capability.

For human spaceflights, automatic deployment and docking eliminates the need for astronauts to perform a spacewalk to release and retrieve the free flyer. For robotic missions, external basing is essential. The docking system provides a protective base during periods it is not needed for mission operations.

For even more information, here are two pointers to the Mini AERCam home site and to a technical overview (PDF format, 4 pages, 589 KB). The pictures above were extracted fom this document.

Sources: NASA news release, June 15, 2005; and other NASA sites

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NASA’s New Horizons mission, which is planned for launch in January 2006, will reach Pluto and Charon — the “double planet” — in July 2015. And a key component for a successful mission is a nuclear space battery using plutonium, and which will carry a ‘Made in Idaho’ sticker. Its general purpose heat source (GPHS) will contain quadruple-encapsulated Plutonium-238 (Pu-238). According to the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), this is the only way to power a spacecraft where the Sun’s intensity is only 1 percent of what it is on Earth. It would require a solar array of about the size of a football field to power the spacecraft when it reaches Saturn. So, the only way to achieve this mission is to use another source of energy, plutonium. Read more…

Before going further, let’s read on the New Horizons web site, maintained by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL), the reasons to go to Pluto.

Our solar system contains three zones: the inner, rocky planets; the gas giant planets; and the Kuiper Belt. Pluto is the largest body of the icy, “third zone” of our solar system. The National Academy of Sciences placed the exploration of the third zone in general — and Pluto-Charon in particular — among its highest priority planetary mission rankings for this decade. New Horizons is NASA’s mission to fulfill this objective.

Just for your information, the picture above shows the sizes of Pluto and Charon if they were projected on the United States (Credit: JHU/APL).

And this Science Overview gives us more details about the mission.

New Horizons is scheduled to launch in January 2006, swing past Jupiter for a gravity boost and scientific studies in February or March 2007, and reach Pluto and its moon, Charon, in July 2015. Then, as part of an extended mission, the spacecraft would head deeper into the Kuiper Belt to study one or more of the icy mini-worlds in that vast region, at least a billion miles beyond Neptune’s orbit. Sending a spacecraft on this long journey could help us answer basic questions about the surface properties, geology, interior makeup and atmospheres on these bodies.

For more information about this mission to Pluto and Charon, you should read about other key components of the spacecraft and browse this gallery.

Now, it’s time to look at the nuclear space battery which will used for this mission.And let’s start by anecdotal details provided by KIFI, a TV station from Idaho Falls.

The INL is at it again, but this time they are working on a project that doesn’t just affect our town or even the globe, it actually has a universal impact.

Scientists are making a battery that can send a spacecraft to the end of our solar system.

John Kotec, deputy manager at DOE, said, “We think it’s fascinating and fantastic. The thought of something with a ‘Made in Idaho’ sticker on it going to Pluto in 10 years is pretty exciting for us.”

For the mission to be a success, the team at the INL has only a two-week window to get the ship up and out. That’s in 2006. If they don’t make it in time, they’ll have to wait four years for their next chance.

In other words, if this space battery doesn’t work correctly next year, the New Horizons spacecraft will not reach Pluto before 2019.

Now, in “Energizing Space Exploration,” the Idaho National Laboratory gives more details about its own goals, which is to provide the nuclear technology necessary for powering “the most intriguing discoveries in our solar system.” Below is a diagram of the nuclear space battery that will go to Pluto, extracted from a Space Batteries Fact Sheet (PDF format, 2 pages, 470 KB).

The General Purpose Heat Source (GPHS) is the building block for the Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator (RTG). These heat sources contain quadruple-encapsulated Plutonium-238 (Pu-238) used to produce heat, which is subsequently converted into electricity.

But why use plutonium?

In space, power is a precious commodity. In Earth’s orbit, a five-foot-square solar panel will produce about 300 watts of electricity which is about as much as an RTG. To produce the same power at Saturn, where the Sun’s intensity is only 1 percent of what it is on Earth, would require a 6,430 square foot solar array — about the size of a football field. A launch of a spacecraft with such a solar array would not be possible. Without systems like these that enable spacecraft to operate reliably and predictably for many years in harsh environments, exploration into the far reaches of the solar system would not be possible.

Will this space battery be ready next year? Stay tuned…

Sources: KIFI, Idaho Falls, June 10, 2005; and various websites

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In a room that was locked for more than thirty years at the Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, NASA recently found suits for space spies. The long-forgotten training suits were in good shape, not even eaten by rodents. These suits should have been worn by fourteen astronauts participating in the Manned Orbiting Laboratory program. The goal of this program, initiated during the Cold War era, was to put a manned reconnaissance station in space. The U.S. Air Force wanted to send two men in a Gemini capsule for 40 days to look over U.S. enemies. But when the program was abandoned in 1969, the suits were lost — for 35 years. Read more…

Here is the story as told by NASA.

Two security officers were doing a check of a facility known as the Launch Complex 5/6 museum. NASA Special Agent Dann E. Oakland and Security Manager Henry Butler, of the company that oversees the museum, Delaware North Parks and Resorts, discovered a locked room — and they had no key.

They eventually were able to unlock the door using a master key. With no power, the room had evidently not been accessed by people in many years. The officers used flashlights to explore the room and make their noteworthy find.

But Oakland and Butler weren’t the first visitors. Rodents had clearly explored the room over the years. Still, two blue spacesuits were “complete and in remarkable shape,” according to the suits’ manufacturer, who examined them.

The NASA press release shows a picture of the spacesuit found in 2005. But here is another picture of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory Suit, dating from 1968 and shown at the National Museum of the United States Air Force (Credit: U.S. Air Force).

“The Manned Orbiting Laboratory program (MOL, 1963-69) was a U.S. Air Force program for studying long-duration spaceflight. This model MH-7 training suit, produced by United Aircraft’s Hamilton Standard Division, was a durable, cost-effective tool for preparing USAF astronauts for MOL missions in more advanced suits. MOL was to use USAF-modified NASA Gemini spacecraft to put two crewmen in a space station for up to a month.”

The manufacturer of the suits, Hamilton Sundstrand (HS), who declared that the recently found spacesuits were in good shape, is still maintaining a site about the MOL Suit Program. Here is a short excerpt about this specific spacesuit.

“In pursuit of the MOL space suit contract, HS developed, fabricated, and evaluated seven suit designs in 18 months. HS won the MOL suit competition at Wright Paterson Air Force Base in January of 1967. Under the MOL suit contract, HS delivered 22 suits between September 1967 and July 1969. This effort culminated with the flight MH-8 (MOL-Hamilton Standard, 8th suit design) configuration. The MH-8 Emergency Oxygen System was a strap-on assembly located on the front of the right upper leg that offered 10 minutes of backup life support.” (Image credit: Hamilton Sundstrand)

If you’re interested by this dead MOL program, here is a site with an exhaustive history of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory. On the left is a rendering of the Manned Orbiting Laboratory in space idf it had be launched (Credit: U.S. Air Force).

In his introduction, Steven R. Strom writes: “In the mid to late ’60s, an ambitious project to launch an orbital space laboratory for science and surveillance came to dominate life at Aerospace.”

Finally, if you’re interested by technological details as well by historical ones, you should read this page from Encyclopedia Astronautica. You’ll discover that two astronauts embarked for a surveillance mission of 40 days should have shared a volume of 11.30 m3. Here are some details about the mission.

The MOL Mission Module took up most of the spacecraft. It had a length of 11.24 m and was divided into two major bays, the forward section 4.42 m long, and the aft section 6.82 m long. The military experiments it would carry remain classified even 25 years later. On most missions it is believed that the KH-10 optical surveillance system would be carried. This consisted of a telescope with a 1.8 m diameter mirror. This was said to be capable of a 4-inch theoretical ground resolution, 9 inch effective. Film would have been returned in four re-entry capsules during the course of the mission.

I’m wondering how many other treasures are still hidden in other space centers.

Sources: NASA Press Release, June 2, 2005; and various websites

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In 2006, NASA plans to send in space the first prototypes of a ‘black box’ named Re-entry Breakup Recorder (REBR). These black boxes, conceptually similar to commercial aviation black boxes, are expendable and weigh about one kilogram according to Small Times. These micro spacecrafts will be attached to a main spacecraft and will separate from it when it re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere. The nanosensors, which will weigh only a few grams, will collect data, such as temperature or pressure and other data, and validate thermal protection systems for human missions. NASA plans to put similar nanosensors in the Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV), NASA’s future replacement for the shuttle. And if everything goes fine, nanosensors will be used for explorations of the moon and might go to Mars around 2025. Read more…

Here is the introduction from Small Times.

A joint project of NASA and El Segundo, Calif.-based Aerospace Corp. will develop a “black box” that uses nanosensors weighing a few grams. The nanosensors will be used to gather data about flight vehicles re-entering the earth’s atmosphere from space. After the perilous high-speed part of re-entry, the black box will “phone home” and relay data by satellite prior to impact with land or sea. The black box will be especially useful in the event of what NASA scientists call an “uncontrolled re-entry.”

And here are some of the reasons why NASA is looking at nanotechnology.

“The black box is a companion spacecraft that is attached to the main spacecraft and there could be more than one,” said Dan Rasky, a scientist at NASA’s Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley. “It’s designed with a heat shield to be able to survive a re-entry and take data of interest at re-entry, such as vehicle position or temperature.”

Nanotechnology offers advantages critical to next-generation space travel, Rasky said. “The challenges we have with a small spacecraft are power and mass,” Rasky explained. Nanotechnology solutions are lightweight and low power. “There are a number of nanotechnology uses involving batteries with greatly improved performance and duty cycles.”

Below is a diagram of the Reentry Breakup Recorder, also known as the Black box. (Credit: The Aerospace Corporation)

And below is another diagram showing the packaging concept of the Black box. (Credit: The Aerospace Corporation)

You’ll find larger images of these diagrams (in Powerpoint format) on this page.

At the end of April 2005, NASA issued a press release which contains many more details, “Micro Spacecraft to Pave the Way for Future Space Exploration.”

NASA and its partner [, The Aerospace Corporation,] recently agreed to develop the first ‘black box’ for spacecraft and test a prototype of this device that will be based on technology that Aerospace has been working on for several years. The ‘black box’ is actually a very small ‘micro spacecraft’ that would be attached to larger space vehicles. A joint program between NASA and Aerospace will develop the black box micro spacecraft, among many other low-cost, miniature space systems, under the terms of a NASA-Aerospace agreement.

NASA also looks at the future of these micro spacecrafts.

Scientists additionally envision using micro spacecraft to do systematic studies of Mars, and sample returns from the moon, Mercury and Venus. Micro spacecraft may also conduct “on location” studies of Venus. Because they can be less expensive than other, more complicated spacecraft, a great number of micro probes could be sent to many more places in the solar system to gather data, researchers suggest. The gas giant planets of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune offer countless opportunities for micro spacecraft to study ‘volatiles’ - water vapor, ammonia, various isotopes and winds.

Small Times, as well as NASA, are using extensively the word ‘nanotechnology.’ But here is the first paragraph of this news release from the Aerospace Corporation from February 2005.

The Aerospace Corporation and NASA Ames Research Center have signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on the development of new small, lightweight, low-cost reentry systems and related nano and pico spacecraft technologies, including miniature sensor systems.

Pico spacecraft technologies? WOW!!!

Anyway, without more details from NASA, it seems to me that these nanosensors belong more to the microscale than to the nanoscale dimension.

Sources: Richard Acello, Small Times, May 23, 2005; and various websites

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Last year, the United States decided to send humans on Mars within thirty years. This sounds possible to me, but in this article, The Scientist warns that besides technical barriers, NASA will need to work to avoid biomedical risks to the human crews. First, crew members will have to live together for almost three years in a small spacecraft, and this promiscuity can lead to possible conflicts or depressions. Bone and muscle losses are another serious issue for such a long mission. Finally, the crew will be exposed to cosmic radiation and will need to be protected from such damages as the destruction of their brain cells. Fortunately, the author thinks that there are solutions to these three problems and offers us his vision. Read more…

Let’s briefly look at the psychological factors. Jay Buckey Jr., the author, who flew aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia in 1998, thinks that conflicts between crew members can be avoided either by sending large crews or big spacecrafts. But he also notes that human are pretty adaptable, especially when faced with tough conditions. He gives a couple of examples.

Fridtjof Nansen spent nine months above the Arctic Circle in a two-person hut with colleague Hjalmar Johansen. Nansen returned and later received the Nobel Prize for other work. He not only survived, he flourished. The crew on Sir Ernest Shackleton’s unsuccessful trip across Antarctica survived two years lost in the Antarctic ice.

So even if a three-year mission could be difficult, it’s still possible to be a successful one with proper training and crew selection.

NASA will have to face the even more serious issue of bone loss.

Crew members in space can lose approximately 1.5% of bone mass per month in certain load-bearing areas such as the hip. This loss occurs despite an aggressive, exercise-based countermeasure program.

According to Buckey, this problem can be solved by using two approaches. The first one implies more effective exercise and use of drugs. The second one would be to build a spaceship with an artificial gravity. Of course, NASA would have to test a series of inhabited rotating spacecrafts before.

The biggest health problem for a human crew going to Mars is the exposure to cosmic radiation, and mainly because it’s invisible and almost impossible to quantify. Here is a description of the problem.

Galactic cosmic radiation consists of atomic nuclei traveling at high speed with high energy. Earth’s magnetic field and atmosphere deflect or block most of it terrestrially, but a spacecraft in interplanetary space would not have this protection. Modeling studies have shown that with typical shielding, ions with an atomic number (z) ¡Ý 15 would hit approximately 6%-12% of the entire population of neuronal nuclei (depending on size and location) in the brain. Hits would occur outside of the nucleus as well. Many of these strikes are likely to be lethal to the cells.

So what’s the solution to this problem? The answer is to build a shield around the spaceship.

Again, there are two solutions. A passive shield, made of lead for instance, would have to be very thick to successfully protect the crew, and the weight of such a protected spacecraft would probably be too high to send it in space anyway.

But there is another solution: active shielding.

Just as a magnetic field protects Earth, it might be possible to put a magnetic field around a spacecraft. A coil of a superconducting material could produce a substantial magnetic field, which could, in turn, deflect the energetic galactic cosmic radiation. For a small-coil radius, the magnetic field would have to be quite strong (several Tesla) to be effective. A field of this size presents major structural and safety issues.

The larger the coil, however, the weaker the magnetic field needs to be. A wire wrapped on a spool could be unwound in space into a large coil. As the radius of the coil approaches a kilometer or so, the field strength and current that is needed will drop to reasonable levels. This approach to shielding, called active shielding, potentially could keep radiation levels within the spacecraft at any desired level.

In his conclusion, Buckey says that Mars is an achievable goal, and delivers his vision.

We solve most of the physiologic problems such as bone loss through biomedical research; address the psychological stresses with proper training and selection; and devote our engineering efforts to making an active radiation shield.

Even if technical or medical hurdles remain, wouldn’t you be happy to go to Mars?

Source: Jay C. Buckey, for The Scientist, Volume 19, Issue 6, 20, March 28, 2005

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NASA is testing a shape-shifting robot called “TETwalker” for tetrahedral walker, because it looks like a flexible pyramid. It has been tested in the lab and at the McMurdo station in Antarctica to test it under conditions more like those on Mars. Now, it is on the way to be — really — miniaturized by using micro- and nano-electro-mechanical systems. These robots will eventually join together to form “autonomous nanotechnology swarms” (ANTS). When it’s done, in about thirty years, these nanotech swarms will “alter their shape to flow over rocky terrain or to create useful structures like communications antennae and solar sails.” So in 2034, nanotechnology will land on Mars. Read more…

But in 2005, this is only the beginning of tests for this shape-shifting robot pyramid at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center.

Like new and protective parents, engineers watched as the TETWalker robot successfully traveled across the floor at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland. Robots of this type will eventually be miniaturized and joined together to form “autonomous nanotechnology swarms” (ANTS) that alter their shape to flow over rocky terrain or to create useful structures like communications antennae and solar sails.

Here are more details about the TETwalker.

The robot is called “TETwalker” for tetrahedral walker, because it resembles a tetrahedron (a pyramid with 3 sides and a base). In the prototype, electric motors are located at the corners of the pyramid called nodes.

The nodes are connected to struts which form the sides of the pyramid. The struts telescope like the legs of a camera tripod, and the motors expand and retract the struts. This allows the pyramid to move: changing the length of its sides alters the pyramid’s center of gravity, causing it to topple over. The nodes also pivot, giving the robot great flexibility.

But where is nanotechnology involved in this project?

The team anticipates TETwalkers can be made much smaller by replacing their motors with Micro- and Nano-Electro-Mechanical Systems. Replacement of the struts with metal tape or carbon nanotubes will not only reduce the size of the robots, it will also greatly increase the number that can be packed into a rocket because tape and nanotube struts are fully retractable, allowing the pyramid to shrink to the point where all its nodes touch.

These miniature TETwalkers, when joined together in “swarms,” will have great advantages over current systems. The swarm has abundant flexibility so it can change its shape to accomplish highly diverse goals. For example, while traveling through a planet’s atmosphere, the swarm might flatten itself to form an aerodynamic shield.

Upon landing, it can shift its shape to form a snake-like swarm and slither away over difficult terrain. If it finds something interesting, it can grow an antenna and transmit data to Earth. Highly-collapsible material can also be strung between nodes for temperature control or to create a deployable solar sail.

Of course, there are many technological challenges to solve for this project to be successful. For more information about the project, please visit the Autonomous NanoTechnology Swarm website. Practically all pages have a graphical version (which look as poorly scanned images) and a cleaner text one.

In particular, take a look at the technologies needed. Those of you interested by robotics will jump to the Tetrahedral Walker page while other will be more interested by Carbon Nanotube Technology.

Finally, you can look at the Timeline for Technological Development… and dream about 2034.

Sources: NASA Goddard Space Flight Center news release, March 29, 2005; and various websites

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Here is an amazing story about how a technology initially developed by NASA for the shuttle program is now being used for something radically different. Back in 2001, NASA needed a tool to conduct quality control for critical aluminum alloy parts. And it worked with KeyMaster Technologies to develop a portable device, the TRACeR, using X-Ray fluorescent technology, or XRF. The TRACeR is approximately the size of a portable drill, and it weighs only 4 pounds. But now, according to “Carpet Cleaning or Rocket Science?,” published by ICS Cleaning Specialist, it’s also being used to quantify carpet cleanliness by the Carpet and Rug Institute (CRI) to give its Seal of Approval (SOA) to vacuum cleaners. Read more…

Here are the first paragraphs of the article.

I just returned from the Carpet and Rug Institute’s annual membership meeting in Dalton, Ga., where the latest news is that cleaning and maintenance is the No.1 consumer concern affecting carpet selection.

The buzz words that have everyone talking are X-Ray fluorescent technology, or XRF.

Professional Testing Laboratories of Dalton has partnered with KeyMaster Technologies of Kennewick, Wash., and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on an entirely new technology for evaluating cleaning equipment and methods. And the CRI intends to use this technology in building a body of science about cleaning and maintenance of carpet though their Carpet Cleaning Equipment Seal of Approval Program.

Now, let’s go back to the story as told by NASA about the development of the technology, described in one of its spinoff projects on August 31, 2004.

KeyMaster Technologies, Inc., develops and markets specialized, hand-held X-ray fluorescence (XRF) instruments and unique tagging technology used to identify and authenticate materials or processes. NASA first met with this Kennewick, Washington-based company as the Agency began seeking companies to develop a hand-held instrument that would detect data matrix symbols on parts covered by paint and other coatings.

In January 2002, KeyMaster representatives visited NASA Marshall Space Flight Center’s Technology Transfer department to demonstrate their standard XRF instrument. The NASA participants, including technical personnel from the Engineering Directorate and the Science Directorate, were particularly interested in the instrument’s portability and capability to quickly analyze the composition of most materials in the environment.

So NASA and KeyMaster Technologies decided to merge their technologies, deposit some patents, and finally sign an agreement giving Keymaster exclusive rights to produce and sell the resulting portable tool worldwide.

And on November 5, 2004, NASA announced its partnership with Keymaster and gave more details about the technology.

The newly developed vacuum X-ray fluorescent analyzer can identify and characterize a wide range of elements, and is capable of detecting chemical elements with low atomic numbers — such as sodium, aluminum and silicon. It is the only hand-held product on the market with that capability. Aluminum alloy verification is of particular interest to NASA because vast amounts of high-strength aluminum alloys are used in the Space Shuttle propulsion system — the External Tank, Main Engine and Solid Rocket Boosters.

“Being able to bring a full analytical chemical laboratory to something as large as a Solid Rocket Booster and determine alloy constituents to an accuracy of four decimal places is a major breakthrough,” said Fred Schramm, technology utilization manager in Marshall ’s Technology Transfer Department. Schramm worked closely with Keymaster to develop the hand-held scanner.

Now, let’s come back to 2005 and see how this XRF scanner is used to determine if a carpet has been correctly cleaned.

[Gary Asbury, president of Professional Testing Laboratories] and PTL already had the carpet-soiling process perfected, but they needed a “soil” mixture that was quantifiable. Working with KeyMaster scientists Lloyd Starks and Dr. Robert Shannon, the PTL staff created a “designer soil,” which mimics actual soil found in carpet.

And here is a last quote about how this XRF technology used to check carpets.

According to Dr. Michael Berry, former deputy director of the National Center of Environmental Assessment of the U.S. EPA, and a leading authority on indoor environmental quality issues, “In my 30 years’ experience, the XRF technology is the first scientific approach to quantifying carpet cleanliness that I will stand behind 100 percent,” he said.

So, what do you think about this arrival of such a high-tech device into a ‘down-to-earth’ domain? Post your comments below.

Sources: Jeff Bishop, for ICS Cleaning Specialist, March 8, 2005; and various websites

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A surprising new study from NASA reveals that a new trend about the evolution of phytoplankton in our oceans is emerging. Instead of declining globally by 6 percent between the 1980s and 1990s, phytoplankton levels are now growing, by more than 4 percent between 1998 and 2003. But according to the data gathered by NASA satellites, this evolution is not uniform. The increase is by far larger near the coasts, where the ocean floor is less than 200 meters and where phytoplankton levels grew by more than 10 percent in the last 5 years. At a moment where everyone is concerned by the global warming effect, this is very good news because one of the things phytoplankton does is absorbing carbon dioxide.

Let’s start our today’s story with more details about the importance of phytoplankton.

The tiny ocean plants help regulate our atmosphere and the health of our oceans. Phytoplankton produce half of the oxygen generated by plants on Earth. They also can soften the impacts of climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide, a heat-trapping greenhouse gas. In addition, phytoplankton serve as the base of the ocean food chain, so their abundance determines the overall health of ocean ecosystems.

Now, what are the results of this new study from NASA?

The researchers used NASA satellite data from 1998 to 2003 to show that phytoplankton amounts have increased globally by more than 4 percent. These increases have mainly occurred along the coasts. No significant changes were seen in phytoplankton concentrations within the global open oceans, but phytoplankton levels declined in areas near the center of the oceans, the mid-ocean gyres.

The above images don’t really show it, but ocean colors also have changed.

Mid-ocean gyres are “ocean deserts”, which can only support low amounts of phytoplankton. When viewed by satellite, these phytoplankton-deprived regions look deep-blue, while in aquatic regions where plant life thrives, the water appears greener.

“The ocean deserts are getting bluer and the coasts are getting greener,” said Watson Gregg, an oceanographer at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), Greenbelt, Md. “The study suggests there may be changes occurring in the biology of the oceans, especially in the coast regions.”

This evolution is so recent that the researchers are cautious before giving conclusions.

“We don’t know the causes of these coastal increases,” said Gregg. “The trends could indicate improved health of the ecosystems as a whole, or they could be a sign of nutrient stress.” Causes of nutrient stress include land run-off that deposits agricultural fertilizers and other nutrients in the oceans. The run-off can promote large algal blooms that can deplete the water of oxygen.

For more technical information, this study has been published on February 8, 2005 by Geophysical Research Letters under the title “Recent trends in global ocean chlorophyll.” Here is a link to the abstract.

A 6-year time series of remotely-sensed global ocean chlorophyll was evaluated using linear regression analysis to assess recent trends. Global ocean chlorophyll has increased 4.1% (P < 0.05). Most of the increase has occurred in coastal regions, defined as bottom depth < 200 m, where an increase of 10.4% was observed. The main contributors to the increase were the Patagonian Shelf, Bering Sea, and the eastern Pacific, southwest African, and Somalian coasts. Although the global open ocean exhibited no significant change, 4 of the 5 mid-ocean gyres (Atlantic and Pacific) showed declines in chlorophyll over the 6 years. In all but the North Atlantic gyre, these were associated with significant increases in sea surface temperature in at least one season. These results suggest that changes are occurring in the biology of the global oceans.

Sources: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center news release, via EurekAlert!, March 3, 2005; and various websites

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Scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) are now counting the animals in their Bronx zoo with the help of a satellite orbiting 280 miles above the Earth — and New York. In this news release, they say they’re so pleased with the results that they plan to count wildlife populations in remote locations in other parts of the world. In the months to come, they’ll count “elephants and giraffes in Tanzania, flamingos in South America, and elk, bison and antelope in Wyoming.” They add that you need a “trained eye” to spot the animals, and believe me, it’s true. They released images which look like a bunch of messy pixels to my “untrained eyes.” But read more…

The keyword in the legend above is “trained eye.” Personally, I don’t really spot a giraffe in this satellite image. And you, can you find the giraffe in this larger image?

Here is the introduction of the WCS news release.

Scientists with the Bronx Zoo-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) have recently been counting their zoo animals from a lofty perch: namely, outer space. Using high-tech cameras fixed to an orbiting satellite 280 miles overhead, a WCS scientific team tallied some of the zoo’s own animal collection to see if satellites can help count wildlife populations in remote locations throughout the world.

The WCS team is currently analyzing high-tech maps produced by the satellite, which orbited the zoo last Wednesday, Nov. 10th. So far, everything from giraffes to Thomson’s gazelles have been spotted with startling clarity. If the technology proves accurate, WCS is hopeful that it can be used to monitor endangered wildlife populations that live in hard-to-reach locations.

You’ll find other details in this NASA news release, a slightly rephrased version of the WCS one, but which contains pictures, such as the one above.

Using cameras fixed to an orbiting satellite 450 kilometers (280 miles) overhead, WCS scientists say that they will be able to take high resolution photographs of specific areas to determine the wildlife composition within that area. They will then compare images from different dates to see changes, either population growth or decline, over time. The satellite, called Quickbird, is owned by DigitalGlobe, a private company.

Launched in 2001, QuickBird is still one of the only commercial remote sensing satellites capable of gathering sub-meter resolution. Its subsystem captures 0.61-meter-resolution panchromatic imagery, and 2.4-meter multi-spectral imagery. It will produce 11 x 11-km snapshots to 11 x 225-km strip maps. [These details come from this page at Kodak website.]

For more information about this satellite, you can check the QuickBird Specifications and some QuickBird Satellite Images.

Sources: Wildlife Conservation Society news release, via EurekAlert!, November 17, 2004; NASA news release, January 17, 2005; and various websites

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It took four years to NASA and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) to fully process the data gathered during the Space Shuttle Endeavour Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) in February 2000. Unlike previous Earth’s maps, this one shows “detailed swaths of Earth’s topography previously obscured by persistent cloudiness,” according to NASA News. The latest images delivered by NASA include Australia, New Zealand and many islands in the South Pacific. NASA adds that these new maps are vital to mitigate “the effects of future disasters such as the Indian Ocean tsunami.” I don’t really know if this statement is true. Mother Nature is certainly stronger than NASA. Anyway, don’t miss this fly-around movie above New Zealand (Quicktime format, 2 minutes, 6.42 MB). Read more…

Below are three images of the islands of Bora Bora, Tahaa and Raiatea, French Polynesia (top to bottom) taken from space (Credit: NASA/JPL/NGA). Here are two links to more details and to a larger version of these images.

This display compares three differing “views from space” of these islands. On the left, an image from the Landsat 7 satellite shows the islands as they might have appeared to an astronaut in orbit in 1999 (but a little sharper and with atmospheric haze suppressed). In the middle is an image created from data gathered by the third-generation Shuttle Imaging Radar (SIR-C), flown in 1994. On the right is a graphic illustrating elevation data gathered by the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) in 2000.

The Landsat satellite cannot ’see’ through clouds, almost always present on this kind of islands, while the SIR-C shows the waves and other effects of winds upon the ocean surface. But the STRM shows a detailed elevation model and can help to in understand and interact with our environment.

After watching these local images, it’s time to look at the big picture. Here is what NASA News says about this new Earth’s map.

The digital elevation maps encompass 80 percent of Earth’s landmass. They reveal for the first time large, detailed swaths of Earth’s topography previously obscured by persistent cloudiness. The data will benefit scientists, engineers, government agencies and the public with an ever-growing array of uses.

“This is among the most significant science missions the Shuttle has ever performed, and it’s probably the most significant mapping mission of any single type ever,” said Dr. Michael Kobrick, mission project scientist of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Pasadena, Calif.

According to NASA, this technology could also be used for space exploration.

SRTM data are being used for applications ranging from land use planning to “virtual” Earth exploration. “Future missions using similar technology could monitor changes in Earth’s topography over time, and even map the topography of other planets,” said Dr. John LaBrecque, manager of NASA’s Solid Earth and Natural Hazards Program, NASA Headquarters, Washington.

Sources: NASA News, January 6, 2005; and various NASA websites

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Four months ago, in “NASA Helps Clearing the Fog,” I was commenting on NASA’s Synthetic Vision program which goal is to reduce airplane accidents by 80 percent. This week, in “Synthetic Vision is no fake,” Washington Technology brings us more details about the technologies used by this program. Synthetic Vision integrates GPS, a high-resolution display, detailed terrain databases and an integrity monitor that ensures the land below corresponds to the synthetic view. The pilot sees the terrain, the potential obstacles, his approach and the runway. NASA says these technologies could also be used for air traffic control or military applications. Read more…

Imagine you are a pilot: this is what you’ll see.

Here are the opening paragraphs of the Washington Technology article.

NASA and its industry partners have developed technology called Synthetic Vision that could nearly eliminate those accidents, said Dan Baize, NASA’s project manager for the effort.

Inspired by the Federal Aviation Administration’s goal of reducing fatal accidents by 80 percent, Synthetic Vision marries several technologies to provide pilots with perfect visibility regardless of the weather or time of day.

So what are the technologies used and how does the full system work?

Synthetic Vision combines a high-resolution display, databases of terrain and Global Positioning System technology to show pilots exactly where they are and how the plane is oriented. The system also has an integrity-monitoring system that ensures that the information Synthetic Vision is displaying corresponds to where the plane actually is.

Synthetic Vision shows the terrain, obstacles, the approach path and runways in a display that looks something like a video game. Databases give pilots photorealistic displays — even including landmarks such as shopping malls and office buildings — but the first-generation projects likely will have more generic displays, Baize said.

And when will we see airplane applications?

Virtually all avionics companies are preparing to launch Synthetic Vision products, Baize said. The first generation of synthetic vision is available from Chelton Flight Systems of Boise, Idaho. Chelton is part of Cobham plc of Wimborne, England.

The business jet industry likely will be an early adopter of Synthetic Vision, and others will follow, said Tim Etherington, a systems engineer with Rockwell Collins Inc., one of NASA’s industry partners on the project.

What other applications will use these technologies?

Air traffic control is a possibility,” Baize said. “Controllers are now limited by the visibility available to them and the line of sight they have. A synthetic tower could be created where the proper traffic information would be viewable to them at all times.”

Synthetic Vision has gone through low-level flight tests on military planes and helicopters, Etherington said. It could be used for military command and control applications too, he said.

My conclusion is identical to the one from four months ago: let’s hope this technology can be deployed as soon as possible on commercial flights.

Sources: Doug Beizer, Washington Technology, December 13, 2004; and various other websites

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