NASA SERVIR: ISERV tool enables rapid view of Earth images from space

A screen-capture of the new online map showing available images taken by the ISERV camera system. 

Users can click on a location to see a slideshow of images uploaded by project scientists. 

Credit: NASA

Flipping through online photo albums and social media collections of "selfies" is one thing, but when pictures can show land areas where millions of people live, it can put things in a completely different perspective - especially for scientists.



One of NASA's newest tools for effective Earth observation has been orbiting our planet for more than 15 years.

The International Space Station provides a constant, reliable perspective from which to record changes on the surface of Earth.

A new user-friendly online resource will provide images from a space station camera with nearly two years of images to share.

Danny Hardin, left, an NSSTC senior research scientist from the University of Alabama in Huntsville, trains three researchers from El Salvador to use SERVIR, an NSSTC-developed environmental monitoring system.

Credit: SERVIR

The interface is a world map that links to thousands of images made by the ISERV camera: the International Space Station SERVIR Environmental Research and Visualization System.

With the click of a mouse, the public can access the images with the ISERV Viewer.

People can view and download specific ISERV captures from a collection of more than 4,000 Earth images. ISERV scientists plan to expand the database to about 60,000 by summer 2015.



ISERV was installed as a technology testbed in the Window Observational Research Facility (WORF) on the orbiting laboratory in January 2013 and is scheduled to be removed from operation in 2015.

The camera receives and acts on commands from the ISERV team to acquire image data of specific areas of Earth's surface as the space station passes overhead.

Images from ISERV are uploaded quickly to the web due to a new automated georeferencing capability, allowing imagery to be processed and published much faster.

This is critically important when dealing with a disaster situation. Georeferencing is a process in which points in an image can be associated with geographic locations on a map.

The SERVIR project operates via regional "hubs" in Nairobi, Kenya; Kathmandu, Nepal; and Panama City, Panama, and is coordinated from NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center.

The SERVIR hubs can task the ISERV system to image scenes of Earth's surface in their regions of interest to address environmental issues and disasters.

Much as parents can look back to see how their child has changed over the years, scientists hope that the snapshots gathered by ISERV of land areas before and after environmental changes will improve future response to natural disasters.

New algorithm enables MIT cheetah robot to run and jump across grass

MIT Biomimetic Robotics Laboratory members pose with the MIT cheetah robot in Killian Court. 

(Top row, from left) Deborah Ajilo, Negin Abdolrahim Poorheravi, John Patrick Mayo, Justin Cheung, Sangbae Kim, Shinsuk Park, Kathryn L. Evans, and Matt Angle. 

(Bottom row, from left) Will Bosworth, Joao Luiz Almeida Souza Ramos, Sehyuk Yim, Albert Wang, Meng Yee Chuah, and Hae Won Park. 

Credit: Jose-Luis Olivares/MIT

Speed and agility are hallmarks of the cheetah: The big predator is the fastest land animal on Earth, able to accelerate to 60 mph in just a few seconds.

As it ramps up to top speed, a cheetah pumps its legs in tandem, bounding until it reaches a full gallop.

Now MIT researchers have developed an algorithm for bounding that they've successfully implemented in a robotic cheetah, a sleek, four-legged assemblage of gears, batteries, and electric motors that weighs about as much as its feline counterpart.

The team recently took the robot for a test run on MIT's Killian Court, where it bounded across the grass at a steady clip.

In experiments on an indoor track, the robot sprinted up to 10 mph, even continuing to run after clearing a hurdle.

The MIT researchers estimate that the current version of the robot may eventually reach speeds of up to 30 mph.

The key to the bounding algorithm is in programming each of the robot's legs to exert a certain amount of force in the split second during which it hits the ground, to maintain a given speed: In general, the faster the desired speed, the more force must be applied to propel the robot forward.

Sangbae Kim, an associate professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, hypothesizes that this force-control approach to robotic running is similar, in principle, to the way world-class sprinters race.

"Many sprinters, like Usain Bolt, don't cycle their legs really fast," Kim says.

"They actually increase their stride length by pushing downward harder and increasing their ground force, so they can fly more while keeping the same frequency."

Kim says that by adapting a force-based approach, the cheetah-bot is able to handle rougher terrain, such as bounding across a grassy field.

In treadmill experiments, the team found that the robot handled slight bumps in its path, maintaining its speed even as it ran over a foam obstacle.

"Most robots are sluggish and heavy, and thus they cannot control force in high-speed situations," Kim says.

"That's what makes the MIT cheetah so special: You can actually control the force profile for a very short period of time, followed by a hefty impact with the ground, which makes it more stable, agile, and dynamic."



See the MIT cheetah-bot in action, and learn how it works. Credit: Melanie Gonick/MIT

Kim says what makes the robot so dynamic is a custom-designed, high-torque-density electric motor, designed by Jeffrey Lang, the Vitesse Professor of Electrical Engineering at MIT.

These motors are controlled by amplifiers designed by David Otten, a principal research engineer in MIT's Research Laboratory of Electronics.

The combination of such special electric motors and custom-designed, bio-inspired legs allow force control on the ground without relying on delicate force sensors on the feet.

Kim and his colleagues, research scientist Hae-Won Park and graduate student Meng Yee Chuah, will present details of the bounding algorithm this month at the IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems in Chicago.

The custom, high-torque-density motors and amplifier. 

Credit: Jose-Luis Olivares/MIT

Kim and his colleagues developed an algorithm that determines the amount of force a leg should exert in the short period of each cycle that it spends on the ground.

That force, they reasoned, should be enough for the robot to push up against the downward force of gravity, in order to maintain forward momentum.

"Once I know how long my leg is on the ground and how long my body is in the air, I know how much force I need to apply to compensate for the gravitational force," Kim says.

"Now we're able to control bounding at many speeds. And to jump, we can, say, triple the force, and it jumps over obstacles."

In experiments, the team ran the robot at progressively smaller duty cycles, finding that, following the algorithm's force prescriptions, the robot was able to run at higher speeds without falling. Kim says the team's algorithm enables precise control over the forces a robot can exert while running.

The face of the MIT cheetah-bot. 

Credit: Jose-Luis Olivares/MIT

By contrast, he says, similar quadruped robots may exert high force, but with poor efficiency.

What's more, such robots run on gasoline and are powered by a gasoline engine, in order to generate high forces.

"As a result, they're way louder," Kim says. "Our robot can be silent and as efficient as animals. The only things you hear are the feet hitting the ground."

"This is kind of a new paradigm where we're controlling force in a highly dynamic situation. Any legged robot should be able to do this in the future."

ESO VLT: Weird Quantum Tunneling Enables 'Impossible' Space Chemistry

Chemical reactions thought to be impossible in space because of the extremely low temperatures there are actually happening often. 

In a July 2013 study, researchers suggest a strange phenomenon called quantum tunneling is the explanation.

CREDIT: ESO. Acknowledgement: VPHAS+ Consortium /Cambridge Astronomical Survey Unit

A weird quirk of quantum mechanics is allowing a chemical reaction thought to be impossible to occur in cold gas in outer space.

In the harsh environment of space, where the temperature is about minus 350 degrees Celsius (minus 210 degrees Fahrenheit), scientists had thought a certain reaction involving alcohol molecules couldn't take place, because at such low temperatures, there shouldn't be enough energy to rearrange chemical bonds.

But surprisingly, research has shown that the reaction occurs at a rate 50 times greater in space than at room temperature.

Now, by simulating the conditions of space in a laboratory, scientists have found a possible explanation for how the reaction occurs: quantum tunneling.

Tunneling depends on the odd rules of quantum mechanics, which state that particles don't usually have decided states, positions and speeds, but exist in hazes of probability.

This means that a particle might have a strong probability of being located on one side of a wall, but still retain a very small chance of actually being on the other side of it, allowing it, occasionally, to "tunnel" through a wall that would otherwise be an impassable barrier.

This tunneling ability might allow particles to undergo chemical reactions that should be impossible due to the lack of energy at the low temperatures of space.

Dwayne Heard

"The answer lies in quantum mechanics," chemist Dwayne Heard of the University of Leeds in the U.K., who led the research, said in a statement.

"Chemical reactions get slower as temperatures decrease, as there is less energy to get over the 'reaction barrier.' But quantum mechanics tells us that it is possible to cheat and dig through this barrier instead of going over it. This is called 'quantum tunneling.'"

Quantum tunneling states last only very, very briefly, making reactions taking advantage of them difficult but that's where the cold temperature might help, because some molecules formed during the reaction process might be transient at room temperature, but last slightly longer at very cold temperatures.

"We suggest that an 'intermediary product' forms in the first stage of the reaction, which can only survive long enough for quantum tunneling to occur at extremely cold temperatures," Heard said.

In a lab, Heard and his colleagues created the same cold conditions in space, and observed reactions of the alcohol methanol with an oxidizing chemical called a hydroxyl radical, and found that these gases react to create methoxy radicals.

Now, the scientists want to test other types of alcohol-related reactions under similar conditions.

"If our results continue to show a similar increase in the reaction rate at very cold temperatures, then scientists have been severely underestimating the rates of formation and destruction of complex molecules, such as alcohols, in space," Heard said.

The findings were published online June 30 in the journal Nature Chemistry.