April 28, 2024

JWST Damage, New Mars Helicopters, Teaching Robots to Die

JWST is doing after its micrometeorite strike, 2 more helicopters are flying to Mars, China will drop a 50+ meter booster … somewhere, and how do you stop the Milky Method from becoming self-replicating robot probes.

This week brought us lots of interesting and in some cases even frightening space news. If youre in the state of mind to relax and consume them in a convenient bite-size video format, youre in luck! Since this is exactly what we have for you here:

How Bad the JWST Damage Is

A few weeks earlier, we reported that JWST had taken a remarkably large micrometeorite hit on among its mirror segments. A new image launched from NASA reveals the degree of the damage. The telescope has been struck six times up until now, with 5 of the 6 triggering minimal damage to its optics, however the strike in May on the C3 mirror section caused a “considerable uncorrectable change.” After the strike, Webbs operators could realign the sector to reduce the impact on its image quality.

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Brand-new observations from NASAs Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter show that inside collapsed lava tubes on the Moon, the temperature level constantly remains a comfortable 17 C. You could wear a short-sleeved shirt (inside a pressurized space suit) and wouldnt require complex and power-hungry heating systems and coolers.
More about lava tubes on the Moon.
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China continues the construction of its Tiangong 3 spaceport station, this week adding a brand-new science module called Wentian. The new laboratory released on July 23rd and was docked with the station on July 25th. One last laboratory module will be connected to the station in October called Mengtian. Once its complete, the station will have about 1/5th the internal volume of the International Space Station, with 3 crew members on board.
More about Chinas new module.
How Likely It Is To Die From Space Debris

The hunt for dark matter continues, with astronomers scanning the skies with telescopes, physicists generating exotic particles in the Large Hadron Collider, and brand-new experiments viewing for particle collisions. A brand-new experiment deep underground in South Dakota has come online called LUX-Zeplin.
More about LUX-Zeplin.
NASA Needs Your Help

More about JWSTs damage.
Another Great Processed Picture from James Webb

Feast your eyes on another extraordinary image from the James Webb Space Telescope. China continues the construction of its Tiangong 3 area station, this week including a new science module called Wentian. Once its total, the station will have about 1/5th the internal volume of the International Space Station, with three crew members on board.
According to a new quote, theres a 6-10% chance that someone someplace will die from falling area scrap in the next decade. You could wear a short-sleeved shirt (inside a pressurized space fit) and wouldnt need complex and power-hungry heating units and coolers.

After the apparent success of the Ingenuity helicopter, which went to Mars with the Perseverance rover, NASA is preparing to send out more of them. It will be a part of the Sample Return Mission and there will be two helicopters. One of their tasks will be collecting samples, so they might be equipped with wheels and robotic hands. That makes future Mars missions much more interesting!
More about future Mars helicopters.
We Need To Teach Robots To Die

Compared to stars, worlds are very dim. If we wished to observe an Earth-sized world orbiting a sunlike star, we d require to be able to block the light from the star to expose a world thats a million times less intense. An amazing service to this problem is a starshade, a flower-like spacecraft that flies countless kilometres away from a telescope, blocking the light from the star, but letting the worlds light through. NASA is trying to find the general publics aid to create a starshade that might fly in orbit, enabling ground-based observatories to see planets.
More about NASAs starshade call for help.
Surprisingly Comfy Moon Lava Tubes

Satellites and space junk are constantly falling back to Earth, burning up in the environment. According to a brand-new price quote, theres a 6-10% opportunity that somebody somewhere will die from falling space junk in the next decade.
More about area particles dangers.
2 More Helicopters To Mars

Feast your eyes on another extraordinary image from the James Webb Space Telescope. This time youre looking at galaxy IC 5332, located about 30 million light-years away. The image processing was done by Judy Schmidt, who downloaded Webbs information in 4 various wavelengths and then combined them into a single image with colors that the human eye can see. You can see regions of thick star formation in the galaxys spiral arms, which are highlighted in the infrared spectrum.
More about IC 5332.
China Adds New Module to Its Space Station

Sending swarms of self-replicating robots to explore the Universe isnt an originality. Its called Von Neumann probes. Its actually quite creative. You can explore an entire galaxy in simply a number of million years. Theres a difficulty that we need to resolve initially before we must build those. Its teaching robotics to die.
More on Von Neumann probes.
Most Sensitive Dark Matter Detector Goes Online