Biomimicry: Roboeel to investigate Oceans of the Solar System

NASA funded robotic eel project is one of the most enticing venture so far. With an aim of delving deep into the ocean-bed of Europa, (Jupiter’s moon), the soft robotic eel is fabricated for scavenging electrical energy from magnetic fields and employing it for creating oxygen and hydrogen so that the machine can generate an outburst, which’ll further help for it’s propulsion. There is still more to it, the bot is sheathed with a soft flexible cover, which is not only stretchable but also electroluminescence.

SpiderFab: The Self-Fabricating Space Systems

Tethers Unlimited, an American aerospace company is busy making ‘SpiderFab’, a manufacturing system inspired by spider’s web making concept. The arachnids like robots are being built with an aim of placing gigantic objects and building big structures in orbit and beyond. For instance, these spider bots could be employed for constructing huge radio antennas, the extendible spacecraft booms, multiple solar panels, trusses and other multifunctional structures within the coming ten years as stated by Rob Hoyt, CEO and chief scientist of Tethers Unlimited.

10 Images from Space Station Element Cupola: An Astronaut’s Office within the ISS

Last month, we covered a round up related to view from space and now we have some images from within Cupola, the pressurized Space Station Element with seven windows. Cupola The Cupola is an observatory module of the ISS. It has seven windows that are used for performing experiments, anchoring and observing Earth. The Space Shuttle mission STS-130 was kicked off from Earth on 8 February 2010 and docked to the Tranquility (Node 3) module. Considering Cupola’s successful attachment, ISS assembly has reached 85 percent completion. The observatory module is…

Hyperloop is crossing the threshold of a Pipe Dream: Elon Musk’s 760mph Supertube

Last year, Elon Musk, the Tony Stark of our real world when surfaced his futuristic concept of human transportation at the speed of sound via pods, some of the people, who doubted his abilities considered it no more than a figment of imagination, which was far from becoming a reality. However, Musk, the man behind PayPal, Tesla and SpaceX, showed an air of seriousness for his pipe dream. In order to herald a revolution in travel industry, bypassing the traffic and the railroad project, he created a new firm by…

10 Images Captured by Orion: A View from Space at 32,000 kmph and 4,000°F

Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (MPCV) finally made its successful re-entry into the earth’s atmosphere after a dramatic test flight that hovered around the Earth twice in nearly 4.5 hours. The spacecraft made a fiery re-entry with 32,000 km/h enduring temperature of 4,000°F. This happens to be one of the fastest NASA capsule missions after the Apollo program from 1969 to 1972.

Impression of Human Brain discovered on Mars: Athabasca Region of the Red Planet

Recent image received by NASA clarifies the fact that once the Martian surface was saturated by volcanoes. The image has a semblance of a human brain (pictured above) and it stretches over a distance of approximately 1.2 miles. The agency has called it the ‘circular island’ since it appears to be an island encircled by smoothly flowing magma.

Deception Point by Dan Brown and Narration by Richard Poe

Dan Brown knows how to glue readers to his book. His every book is full of surprises with unexpected outcomes and Deception Point is no exception. His description is often marked with vividness, which makes the readers see events than read things. And if the book happens to be an audio version well, then it’s a super awesome combination. Thanks to reado.com for giving me an opportunity to hear a book from one of my favorite authors across the genre of science fiction.

Human Waste to morph into Rocket Fuel: Methane powered Spacecrafts

A research team from the University of Florida has found a way to transform human waste into something as useful as a rocket fuel. Until now the waste produced during space missions were stored which was later burnt while entering Earth’s atmosphere, when the space cargo vehicle loaded with waste returns. However, between 2019 and 2024, NASA plans to build an operating base on moon for initiating future long-term space missions that would require a way to cut down the weight of spacecraft leaving Earth. Clearly, neither dumping waste on…

Internet Satellite Swarm: SpaceX to develop fleet of Micro-Satellites

After creating a dent in the world of automobiles and aerospace by giving affordable electric cars and rockets, Silicon Valley entrepreneur Elon Musk is moving towards delivering cheap Internet across the globe. This time, Mr. Musk is collaborating with Greg Wyler, founder of WorldVu Satellites Ltd., which happens to control a huge chunk of radio spectrum. Wyler has been working with Google Inc. but 2 months back he had left the tech giant and currently, he has been working with Elon Musk and SpaceX.

ECOSTRESS: The New Thermometer for detecting Earth’s Temperature

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory is developing a space-based instrument for detecting transpiration within plants so that the flora can effectively use water. ECOsystem Spaceborne Thermal Radiometer Experiment (ECOSTRESS) is the name of the device that will be docked on the space station for monitoring the water loss through nano-pores occurring within leaves.

Google’s First Quantum Computer: A Combination of D-Wave and Universal Gate-Model

Quantum logic gate based on qubits is what most of the quantum computing labs is working on to make the product a reality. However, these labs show no or less confidence in companies like D-Wave, the Canadian based that came out with world’s first commercially available quantum computer functioning on 128-qubit chipset, in 2011. Lately, in an interesting turn of events, Google went a step ahead by hiring a team of researchers for building their initial Google quantum computer using quantum annealing as per the D-Wave approach than the conventional…

Interplay between Subsurface Liquid and Clathrates Reservoirs on Titan: Methane Rainfall

Information gathered by NASA in collaboration with European Space Agency Cassini mission has surfaced presence of numerous lakes across the northern polar area of Titan. Instead of consisting of water, these seas are composed of hydrocarbons, the organic compounds that are also present on Earth. As per the previous studies, the rainfall from the surface clouds brings about major amount of liquid on Saturn’s moon. However, the cycle of liquid moving through the moon’s crust and the atmosphere is still under consideration.