Steps into Space - Commercialisation, Occupation, Colonization: 06/20/14

Friday, 20 June 2014

DARPA Z-Man Program Demonstrates Human Climbing Like Geckos

DARPA’s Z-Man program has demonstrated the first known human climbing of a glass wall using climbing devices inspired by geckos. The historic ascent involved a 218-pound climber ascending and descending 25 feet of glass, while also carrying an additional 50-pound load in one trial, with no climbing equipment other than a pair of hand-held, gecko-inspired paddles. The novel polymer microstructure technology used in those paddles was developed for DARPA by Draper Laboratory of Cambridge, Mass. Historically, gaining the high ground has always been an operational advantage for warfighters, but the climbing instruments on which they’re frequently forced to rely—tools such as ropes and ladders—have not advanced significantly for millennia. Not only can the use of such tools be overt and labor intensive, they also only allow for sequential climbing whereby the first climber often takes on the highest risk. DARPA created the Z-Man program to overcome these limitations and deliver maximum safety and flexibility for maneuver and rapid response to warfighters operating in tight urban environments. The goal of the program is to develop biologically inspired climbing aids to enable warfighters carrying a full combat load to scale vertical walls constructed from typical building materials. “The gecko is one of the champion

The post DARPA Z-Man Program Demonstrates Human Climbing Like Geckos has been published on Technology Org.

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Jupiter's moons remain slightly illuminated, even in eclipse

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Astronomers have found that Jupiter's Galilean satellites (Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto) remain slightly bright (up to one millionth of their normal state) even when in the Jovian shadow and not directly illuminated by the Sun. The effect is particularly pronounced for Ganymede and Callisto.

via Science Daily

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Vintage Astronomy, Celestial Planisphere Map Posters

Here's a great poster featuring a beautiful image from deep space

Vintage Astronomy, Celestial Planisphere Map Posters

tagged with: antique, constellations, retro, planisphere, americana, vintage illustration, norhtern hemisphere, celestial map, star chart, astronomy

Vintage illustration astronomy and celestial map by Joseph (James) Moxon (1627-1691). Star chart featuring a world planisphere and celestial sphere - both are surrounded by scenes from the Old and New Testaments including vignettes of the Creation, the Garden of Eden, the Deluge, Moses, the Crucifixion and angels observing the Holy City. Created circa 1691 -1699.

Joseph Moxon was a hydrographer to Charles II, was an English printer of mathematical books and maps, a maker of globes and mathematical instruments, and mathematical lexicographer. Joseph Moxin produced the first English language dictionary devoted to mathematics. In November 1678 he became the first tradesman to be elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society.

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Imaging an exoplanet with a flower-power star shade

Science Focus

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NASA/JPL

Late in May, at a session of the World Science Festival devoted to the prospects of finding life on other planets, astronomer Sara Seager came with a rather unusual looking stage prop—a thin black slab that tapered at one end. It sat off on the side of the stage for a while before Seager got the chance to explain what it was doing there. When she finally got the chance, she said why it could be the key to imaging small, rocky planets like Earth—and determining if their atmospheres provide hints that there might be life on the surface below.

So far, the only planets outside our solar system that we've imaged directly have been huge gas giants, far from their host star and young enough to still be glowing in the infrared. Even with their relative brightness and distance from the nearest star, the light from the star would completely swamp our sensors. So the telescopes used to contain what's called a coronagraph, or star shade. This blots out the central star, ensuring that the majority of light the telescope receives comes from the planets.

But small planets close enough to be in the habitable zone of a star create two problems. The first is that they don't produce any of their own light; instead, we'd have to capture light that's produced by the host star and then reflected off their surfaces or atmospheres. This makes them very dim, especially relative to their host star.

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» see original post http://feeds.arstechnica.com/~r/arstechnica/science/~3/UH0GEWmRcm8/
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Shaken, not stirred: Control over complex systems consisting of many quantum particles

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At TU Vienna, a new method was developed to utilize quantum mechanical vibrations for high precision measurements. The well-known concept of the Ramsey interferometer is applied to a complex multi particle system consisting of hundreds of atoms. Shaken: The time evolution of the vibration of the condensate Sometimes quantum particles behave like waves. This phenomenon is often used for high precision measurements, for instance in atomic clocks. Usually, only the wave properties of single particles play a role, but now researchers at the Vienna Center for Quantum Science and Technology, Vienna University of Technology have succeeded in quantum mechanically controlling hundreds of Rubidium atoms of an ultracold Bose-Einstein-condensate by shaking it in just the right way. Now, not only internal states of atoms can be used for interferometric measurements, but also the collective motional state of all particles. Superpositions of Different States According to quantum theory, some physical quantities can only have certain discrete values. If, for instance, the energy of an electron inside an atom is measured, it is always found in special energy states – other energy values are just not allowed. It is similar with the motion of particles, if they are confined to small spaces. Using

The post Shaken, not stirred: Control over complex systems consisting of many quantum particles has been published on Technology Org.

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» see original post http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/TechnologyOrgPhysicsNews/~3/OrrwOxascTg/
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Red Supergiant Star V838 Monocerotis Square Sticker

Here's a great sheet of stickers featuring a beautiful image from deep space

Red Supergiant Star V838 Monocerotis Square Sticker

tagged with: envelope sealers, amazing astronomy images, hubble images, monocerotis, supermassive red giant, stars, interstellar dust, swirling dust clouds, monoceros constellation, red supergiant star

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A gorgeous astronomy picture featuring a distant star, named V838 Monocerotis, in the direction of the constellation of Monoceros on the outer edge of our Milky Way. The image shows the swirls of dust spiralling across trillions of miles of interstellar space, lit mainly from within by a pulse of light from the red supergiant, two years into its journey.

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image code: monocerotis

Image credit: NASA, the Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI) and ESA

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Zany Dancers and Blue spot Alien - Happy Birthday! Gift Wrap

Get your out-of-this-world gift wrap here! Perfect for Christmas gifts for anyone who is fascinated by what the universe holds in store for us!

Zany Dancers and Blue spot Alien - Happy Birthday! Gift Wrap

tagged with: dancing motifs, dance motifs, dancers logo, happy birthday, pbslawt, blue-spotted, pink alien, trunk, antennae, outer space visitors

Just Fun series Fun birthday wrapping paper featuring bright, zany, exuberant dancers in a variety of colourful poses to brighten the mood :) With a blue-spotted alien with droopy antennae, you can change the text from Happy Birthday to what you want - even the person's name.
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Rio at Night

In this night skyscape setting stars trail above the western horizon over Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, a venue for the 2014 World Cup. Gentle arcs from the bright, colorful stars of Orion are near the center of the frame, while the starfield itself straddles planet Earth's celestial equator during the long exposure. Of course, trails from more local lights seem to create the strident paths through the scene. Air traffic smears an intense glow over an airport at the far right, while helicopters fly above the city and boats cruise near the coast. Striping the waterfront are tantalizing reflections of bright lights along the Copacabana and Ipanema beaches. Near the horizon, the brightest fixed light is the famous Cristo statue overlooking Rio at night.

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NASA's swift satellite tallies water production of Mars-bound comet

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In late May, NASA's Swift satellite imaged comet Siding Spring, which will brush astonishingly close to Mars later this year. These optical and ultraviolet observations are the first to reveal how rapidly the comet is producing water and allow astronomers to better estimate its size.

via Science Daily

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Unexpected findings: Small asteroids can be flying rock clusters or even clouds of dust surrouding solid rocks

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What seemed to be rock-solid assumptions about the nature of small asteroids may end in rubble or even a cloud of dust. New findings suggest small asteroids can be a flying cluster of rocks or a cloud of dust with a solid rock at its nucleus.

via Science Daily

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Swiftly moving gas streamer eclipses supermassive black hole

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An international team of astronomers has discovered unexpected behavior from the supermassive black hole at the heart of the galaxy NGC 5548. Their findings may provide new insights into the interactions of supermassive black holes and their host galaxies.

via Science Daily

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Carina Nebula Room Sticker

Here's a great wall decal featuring a beautiful image from deep space

Carina Nebula Room Sticker

tagged with: carina nebula, nebula, stars, astronomy, univesrse, space

The Carina Nebula is a large bright nebula that surrounds several open clusters of stars.

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S0 Galaxy NGC 5866

Here's a great iPad case from Zazzle featuring a Hubble-related design. Maybe you'd like to see your name on it? Click to personalize and see what it's like!

S0 Galaxy NGC 5866

tagged with: le0023, nasa, etoiles, les etoiles, astronomy, science, galaxy, hubble, scientific, outer space, deep space, sky, galaxies, hst, hubble telescope, disk, spiral, lenticular, ngc 5866, hubble space telescope, black, white, blue, beautiful, pretty, elegant, inspiring, celestial

"This is a unique NASA Hubble Space Telescope view of the disk galaxy NGC 5866 tilted nearly edge-on to our line-of-sight.

Hubble's sharp vision reveals a crisp dust lane dividing the galaxy into two halves. The image highlights the galaxy's structure: a subtle, reddish bulge surrounding a bright nucleus, a blue disk of stars running parallel to the dust lane, and a transparent outer halo."

(qtd. from HubbleSite.org NewsCenter release STScI-2006-24)

Credit: NASA, ESA, and The Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

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Silicon alternatives key to future computers, consumer electronics

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This graphic depicts the structure of an extremely thin semiconductor called molybdenum disulfide, which is particularly promising for future flexible and transparent electronic devices for displays, touch pads and other applications. The structure of molybdenum disulfide is a single-atomic layer of molybdenum sandwiched between single-atomic layers of sulfide and “doped” with a chemical compound called 1,2 dichloroethane (DCE). (Purdue University photo/Lingming Yang) Download Photo Researchers are reporting key milestones in developing new semiconductors to potentially replace silicon in future computer chips and for applications in flexible electronics. Findings are detailed in three technical papers, including one focusing on a collaboration of researchers from Purdue University, Intel Corp. and SEMATECH, a consortium dedicated to advancing chip manufacturing. The team has demonstrated the potential promise of an extremely thin – or “two-dimensional” – semiconductor called molybdenum disulfide. Although molybdenum disulfide has been studied by research groups around the world, a key obstacle to its practical use has been a large electrical resistance between metal contacts and single-atomic layers of the material. This “contact resistance” limits the flow of current between the contacts and the molybdenum disulfide, hindering performance. “This is a fundamental bottleneck,” said Peide “Peter” Ye, a Purdue professor of electrical and

The post Silicon alternatives key to future computers, consumer electronics has been published on Technology Org.

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Design of self-assembling protein nanomachines starts to click

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Computational model of a successfully designed two-component protein nanocage with tetrahedral symmetry.Dr. Vikram Mulligan A route for constructing protein nanomachines engineered for specific applications may be closer to reality. Biological systems produce an incredible array of self-assembling, functional protein tools. Some examples of these nanoscale protein materials are scaffolds to anchor cellular activities, molecular motors to drive physiological events, and capsules for delivering viruses into host cells. Scientists inspired by these sophisticated molecular machines want to build their own, with forms and functions customized to tackle modern-day challenges. The ability to design new protein nanostructures could have useful implications in targeted delivery of drugs, in vaccine development and in plasmonics, which is manipulating electromagnetic signals to guide light diffraction for information technologies, energy production or other uses. A recently developed computational method may be an important step toward that goal. The project was led by the University of Washington’s Neil King, translational investigator; Jacob Bale, graduate student in Molecular and Cellular Biology; and William Sheffler in David Baker’s laboratory at the University of Washington Institute for Protein Design, in collaboration with colleagues at UCLA and Janelia Farm. The work is based in the Rosetta macromolecular modeling package developed by

The post Design of self-assembling protein nanomachines starts to click has been published on Technology Org.

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New molecules around old stars

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(Phys.org) —Using ESA's Herschel space observatory, astronomers have discovered that a molecule vital for creating water exists in the burning embers of dying Sun-like stars.

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Name, Deep Space Hubble Astronomy Pictures Gift Wrap

Get your out-of-this-world gift wrap here! Perfect for Christmas gifts for anyone who is fascinated by what the universe holds in store for us!

Name, Deep Space Hubble Astronomy Pictures Gift Wrap

tagged with: hubble, outer space, astronomy, deep space, star galaxies, spiral galaxy, nebula, cosmic, interstellar dust, sky watching

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series Gift wrap paper - with the name of the person whose gift it is. Using four astronomy images from deep space, this is the perfect wrapping paper for an out of this world gift!
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Carina Nebula, Star Forming Gas-cloud Sculpture Rectangle Sticker

Here's a great sheet of stickers featuring a beautiful image from deep space

Carina Nebula, Star Forming Gas-cloud Sculpture Rectangle Sticker

tagged with: billowing interstellar gas clouds, cnbigc, star forming activity, carina nebula, amazing space sculpture, star nurseries, stellar winds, young hot stars, gas cloud sculpture

Galaxies, Stars and Nebulae series A beautiful space photograph featuring the 7500 light year distant Carina Nebula. This Hubble image shows rich, interstellar gas clouds feeding the formation of new stars. As a proto star forms, the gas clouds get dragged to its surface and some gets emitted as tight jets of material travelling at hundreds of miles per second. These in turn help sculpt the gas clouds into weird and grotesque shapes, some looking like strange worms, swimming through space.

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image code: cnbigc

Image credit: NASA, the Hubble Heritage Team (AURA/STScI) and ESA

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Horsehead Nebula Wall Decals

Here's a great wall decal featuring a beautiful image from deep space

Horsehead Nebula Wall Decals

tagged with: horsehead nebula, nebula, dark nebula, constellation, orion, nebulae, universe, space, astronomy, astronomer

The Horsehead Nebula is a dark nebula in the constellation Orion. Image by NASA and ESA.

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Dwarf Galaxy Holmberg IX iPad Mini Covers

Here's a great iPad case from Zazzle featuring a Hubble-related design. Maybe you'd like to see your name on it? Click to personalize and see what it's like!

Dwarf Galaxy Holmberg IX iPad Mini Covers

tagged with: le0070, nasa, etoiles, les etoiles, astronomy, science, galaxy, hubble, space, scientific, outer space, deep space, galaxies, hst, hubble telescope, sky, dwarf, holmberg, irregular, magellanic, ursa major, hubble space telescope, blue, black, beautiful, pretty, celestial

"This loose collection of stars is actually a dwarf irregular galaxy, called Holmberg IX. It resides just off the outer edge of M81, a large spiral galaxy in Ursa Major. This image was taken with Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys in early 2006. Holmberg IX is of the so-called Magellanic type of galaxy, as its size and irregularity in structure are similar to the Small Magellanic Cloud, a neighbor to our own Milky Way. Holmberg IX was first discovered by astronomer Sidney van den Bergh in 1959, and cataloged as DDO 66. The galaxy received its "Holmberg IX" naming when it was discussed in Eric Holmberg's study of groups of galaxies ten years later. It is suspected that the dwarf galaxy was created as a result of a galactic interaction between M81 and neighboring galaxy M82."

(qtd. from Hubblesite.org NewsCenter release STScI-2008-02)

Credit: NASA, ESA, and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)

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