ESA Meteron: Using space internet to control ISS robots

As part of the Meteron project – Multi-purpose End-To-End Robotic Operations Network – astronauts will control the Mocup test robot from ESA’s European Space Operations Centre, Darmstadt, Germany.

Mocup is an acronym of Meteron Operations and Communications Prototype.

Credits: ESA

ESA and NASA have tested a communications protocol that will allow astronauts to control robots from space stations orbiting planets or asteroids.

The test marks the way for a trial-run with an astronaut on the International Space Station next week.

Last week a Space Station user centre at the University of Boulder, USA sent a command to a NASA laptop on the International Space Station to start a script that controlled the Mocup robot at ESA’s ESOC operations centre in Darmstadt, Germany. 

The robot was commanded to move forward and take pictures, which it performed as planned.

Mocup is one of the robots in ESA’s Meteron – Multi-purpose End-To-End Robotic Operations Network – initiative for future missions to the Moon, Mars and other celestial bodies.

Space exploration will most likely involve sending robotic explorers to test the waters on uncharted planets before sending humans to land.
 
In the case of distant planets, these robots could be controlled by astronauts in spacecraft orbiting the planet.

“In these tests we are pretending that Earth is the Moon or Mars,” says Kim Nergaard, Meteron Ground Segment and Operations Manager. (@Kimsy)

Inside NASA Shuttle Endeavour: A bond between technology and humanity

Endeavour's flight deck on Wednesday. Credit: Stephen Clark/Spaceflight Now

See a photo tour of Endeavour's cockpit.

Put aside the nagging worry of bumping into one of those switches. No need to don clean room suits. This ship isn't flying in space anymore.

After getting over the visceral thrill of being inside a spaceship - the real thing - the compactness of the shuttle's crew cabin is quickly evident. Up to seven crew members lived aboard these ships for more than two weeks.

On most shuttle flights, four people rode to and from space on the orbiter's flight deck. Even after removing the cockpit's two rear seats, only three or four people can comfortably fit on the flight deck.

Now stripped of its kitchen, toilet, storage lockers and seats, the shuttle Endeavour's lower deck is spacious compared to the cramped flight deck. It's still not much bigger than a moving truck, but the shuttle's living space eclipses the volume of capsules like Apollo, Soyuz and NASA's new Orion spacecraft.

ESA ATV-3 Edoardo Amaldi: ATV-CC last (nominal) successful simulation

Last (nominal) successful simulation for all Mission Control Centre (MCC) for ATV-3, Edoardo Amaldi. Lots of telemetry yfrog.com/h0pfoigj

ATV-3 Edoardo Amaldi, all fuelled up and ready for launch

Flying People in New York City - YouTube

Three people were spotted flying around the skies of lower Manhattan last Friday, causing dropped jaws from onlookers.

But while it appeared to be flying "death eaters" of  the "Harry Potter" series, it actually turned out to be a clever piece of viral marketing for this week's upcoming film "Chronicle."

In an interview to yahoo! James Percelay, the co-founder of Thinkmodo said he and his partner Michael Krivicka were approached by 20th Century Fox, the studio behind "Chronicle," and they came out with a plan for the viral video.

Those aren't people in the air, but some very intricately designed radio-controlled airplanes. Percelay has not disclosed who exactly was piloting the planes in the video. He only said: "They are expert AMA (Academy of Model Aeronautics) members with amazing skills."

Scientists find they can control how people react to group pressure

Researchers found they were able to control whether volunteers conformed to social pressure by using powerful electromagnetic pulses that changed the activity of a small part of the brain.

Volunteers whose posterior medial frontal cortex, an area in the middle of the brain that is associated with reward processing, were exposed to the magnetic pulses suffered reduced levels of conformity.

The researchers believe this part of the brain dates back a long way in the evolution of animals and is responsible or automatically "correcting" our performance when we fall out of line with a group.

They say that by suspending this mechanism, it allows people to think and behave differently. They now believe it may be possible to develop drugs or behaviour changing techniques that could increase or decrease people's conformity.

Dr Vasily Klucharev, a neuroscientist who led the research at the Radboud University Nijmegen, in Holland, said: "People can try to reduce conformity in certain situations, especially when they know about negative consequences of group pressure such as criminal behaviour, propaganda or aggressive marketing.

"Right now we can search for behavioural techniques that modulate activity of the posterior medial frontal cortex without any physical intervention. Hopefully, with help of these techniques someone would be able to partly immune themselves to 'group pressure'.

"Drug manipulation of dopamine could also affect conformity."

Such drugs would be controversial, however, as they could be used by companies hoping to make their employees more reliable or to help control rebellious individuals.

In the study, the researchers asked 49 female volunteers to take part in a study where they were asked to rate the attractiveness of 220 photographs of female faces, but they were allowed to change their ratings after seeing what others in the study had scored.

When Transcranial Electromagnetic Stimulation (TMS) was used to inhibit the activity of the neurons in the posterior medial frontal cortex, the participants did not change their ratings of the photographs so they were more in line with the rest of the group.

Dr Klucharev believes this part of the brain is responsible for generating an "error" signal when individuals deviate from the group opinion, triggering a cascade that leads them to conform with the group view.

He said: "What if that mechanism could be suspended for a time? The group who were exposed to the TMS changed their views to a much lesser extent – they were immune to 'group pressure'.

"Individuals differ in the strength of the error signal – which is why some people are more conformist than others. It also tells us that conformity is a rather automatic process that is based on an old evolutionary mechanism."

‪Rockwell Collins Pro Line Fusion Touch Screen‬‏ - YouTube

For the first 50 years of computing, the input and output of a computer have been to different places. Mobile computing and the touch screen are quickly changing things though and the changes extend to the aircraft industry.

At the 59th Annual Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) Airventure in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, Rockwell Collins has unveiled the first touch-control primary flight displays (PFD) for business jets and turboprop aircraft, which will be available on future applications of the company's Pro Line Fusion avionics system.

The icon-based, touch-controlled interface is designed to make the cockpit more user friendly and keep the pilot's eyes focused up and forward instead of down at the center console.

A tap of the display brings up a context-sensitive menu that lets pilots change things such as the speed, altitude and heading of the aircraft with just a couple of taps.

Through the icon-based graphical user interface, the pilot can also manage aircraft systems, complete checklists, and review the flightplan on a scrollable map, all without taking their eyes off the PFD.

Through gesture controls, pilots can also redirect the aircraft to a graphically displayed waypoint or destination with a swipe of a finger instead of entering information on a console-mounted keypad.

Other gestures control panning and zoom features, while a physical keyboard is retained for alphanumeric input rather than an onscreen virtual keyboard that was decided would cover up too much important information.

With a couple of taps, the screen layout can also be split into two, three or four windows and the elements of the individual windows customized by dragging and dropping icons to provide a wealth of relevant flight information at a glance.

Rockwell Collins says the user-friendly, icon-based graphical user interface also cuts the learning curve for pilots transitioning to a new aircraft type.

"These displays demonstrate our focus on empowering pilots with natural head-up, eyes-forward interfaces," said Colin Mahoney, vice president of Sales and Marketing for Rockwell Collins.

"Touch-controlled, icon-based controls on the main displays help keep pilots' attention focused up and forward for safer and more efficient flying."

Rockwell Collins expects to receive certification for the touchscreen interface in 2013, after which it is slated to appear in cockpits featuring its Pro Line Fusion avionics suite.

NASA Shuttle Discovery: Virtual Tour of Flight deck

To see a 360 deg virtual tour of the NASA Shuttle Discovery flight deck, click on the picture.

This view shows Space Shuttle Discovery's flight deck during decommissioning in the Orbiter Processing Facility

Emission control: Turning carbon trash into treasure

Emission control: Turning carbon trash into treasure - New Scientist

IT'S LIKE standing at the edge of a giant patchwork quilt. Stretching into the distance are broad bands of bright yellow alternated with patches of delicate white, all beneath a vast glass roof. This greenhouse full of flowers is just one of hundreds that dot the Dutch coast, where row after row of chrysanthemums, orchids and roses are fed carbon dioxide-enriched air, helping them to grow up to 30 per cent faster than normal.

While plenty of commercial greenhouses top up their air with extra CO2, what is unusual about this one is where its CO2 comes from. Until a few years ago, the greenhouse's operators used to burn natural gas for the sole purpose of generating CO2. Today it is piped from a nearby oil refinery. Each year, 400,000 tonnes of CO2 are captured and then piped to around 500 greenhouses between Rotterdam and The Hague, where it is absorbed by the growing plants before they are shipped for sale around the world (see "Cash for carbon").

As governments ramp up their efforts to cut carbon emissions, carbon capture is moving closer to the top of the agenda. The current plan to deal with all of our excess CO2 is to just pump the stuff underground - a kind of landfill for gases. Looking at this carpet of flowers, it is hard not to think that we are going about this in the wrong way. Shouldn't we look to pioneering schemes like the Dutch greenhouses to find ways to recycle the captured CO2 instead?

It turns out that a growing number of researchers, start-ups and even industry giants are also beginning to think like this. And not just for growing flowers; they believe whole cities could one day be built and powered with the help of exhaust fumes.

"It's time we stopped thinking of CO2 solely as a pollutant and viewed it as a valuable resource," says Gabriele Centi, a chemist at the University of Messina, Italy. "With carbon capture and sequestration, we'll essentially have a zero-cost feedstock."