Moon mission will test advanced laser spacecraft communications

An advanced laser system offering incredibly faster data speeds to link with spacecraft beyond the Earth has successfully passed a crucial ground test, scientists say.

European Space Agency ESA's observatory in Spain will use the laser to communicate with a NASA Moon orbiter later this year.

The laboratory testing paves the way for a live space demonstration in October, once NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) begins orbiting the Moon.

LADEE carries a terminal that can transmit and receive pulses of laser light. ESA's Optical Ground Station on Tenerife will relay data at unprecedented rates using infrared light beams at a wavelength similar to that used in fiber-optic cables on Earth.

"The testing went as planned, and while we identified a number of issues, we'll be ready for LADEE's mid-September launch. Our ground station will join two NASA stations communicating with the LADEE Moon mission, and we aim to demonstrate the readiness of optical communication for future missions to Mars or anywhere else in the Solar System,” said Zoran Sodnik, manager for ESA's Lunar Optical Communication Link project.

The testing took place in July at a Zurich, Switzerland, facility owned by ESA's industrial partner RUAG and made use of a new detector and decoding system, a ranging system and a transmitter.

A NASA team brought over their laser terminal simulator, while ESA together with RUAG and Axcon of Denmark set up the European equipment to test compatibility between the two sets of hardware.

"This interagency optical compatibility test was the first of its kind, and it established the uplink, downlink and the ranging measurement," said ESA's Klaus-Juergen Schulz, responsible for ground station systems at the European Space Operations Centre, Darmstadt.

Laser communications at near-infrared wavelengths may be the way of the future when it comes to downloading massive amounts of data from spacecraft orbiting Earth, Mars or even more distant planets, researchers said.

These units are lighter, smaller and need less power than today's radio systems, promising to cut mission costs and provide opportunities for new science payloads.

Birds and humans have similar brain wiring

Bird brain? Humans and birds have brains that are wired in a similar way, a new study has claimed.

A researcher from Imperial College London and his colleagues have for the first time developed a map of a typical bird brain, showing how different regions are connected together to process information.

By comparing it to brain diagrams for different mammals such as humans, the team discovered that areas important for high-level cognition such as long-term memory and problem solving are wired up to other regions of the brain in a similar way.

This is despite the fact that both mammal and bird brains have been evolving down separate paths over hundreds of millions of years.

The researchers suggest that evolution has discovered a common blueprint for high-level cognition in brain development.

Birds have been shown in previous studies to possess a range of skills such as a capacity for complex social reasoning, an ability to problem solve and some have even demonstrated the capability to craft and use tools.

"Birds have been evolving separately from mammals for around 300 million years, so it is hardly surprising that under a microscope the brain of a bird looks quite different from a mammal," said Professor Murray Shanahan, author of the study from the Department of Computing at Imperial College London.

"Yet, birds have been shown to be remarkably intelligent in a similar way to mammals such as humans and monkeys. Our study demonstrates that by looking at brains that are least like our own, yet still capable of generating intelligent behaviour, we can determine the basic principles governing the way brains work," Shanahan said.

The team developed their map by analysing 34 studies of the anatomy of the pigeon brain, which is typical for a bird.

They focused on areas called 'hub nodes', which are regions of the brain that are major centres for processing information and are important for high level cognition.

In particular, they looked at the hippocampus, which is important for navigation and long-term memory in both birds and mammals.

They found that these hub nodes had very dense connections to other parts of the brain in both kinds of animal, suggesting they function in a similar way.

They compared the prefrontal cortex in mammals, which is vital for complex thought such as decision making, with the nidopallium caudolaterale, which has a similar role in birds.

Researchers discovered that despite both hub nodes having evolved differently, the way they are wired up within the brain looks similar.

The study was published in the Frontiers in Computational Neuroscience journal.

ICE Cream can reveal the kind of personality You are

Our favourite ice cream flavour can explain something important about us. A study has found it can reveal the kind of personality we have.

The study found how the ones fond of vanilla flavour were more likely to be impulsive and idealist, while chocoholics were dramatic and flirtatious, while Rocky Road lovers were good listeners. Praline 'n Cream fans are loving and supportive, Daily Mail reported.

In the study, conducted by Baskin Robbins ahead of the National Ice Cream Month, Alan Hirsh, founder of Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation, tried to identify how some ice cream flavours may suggest about individual personalities.

Hirsch said that they uncovered quite a few surprising finds. "For instance, we found that people who prefer Rainbow Sherbet are more pessimistic than you would think, in spite of the flavour's bright taste profile, and that those who prefer Rocky Road are actually very good listeners."

And, the ones preferring Mint Chocolate Chip tend to be argumentative.

"National Ice Cream Month is the perfect time to enjoy your favourite ice cream flavour, and this year we wanted our guests to have fun by learning what their favourite flavour says about them," said Dan Wheeler, from the ice cream chain.

In 1984, president Ronald Reagan designated July as National Ice Cream Month and the third Sunday of the month as National Ice Cream Day.

He recognised ice cream as a fun and nutritious food that is enjoyed by a full 90 per cent of the nation's population

 

Machine turns sweat into drinking water in Sweden

 

Drinking another person's sweat may sound obnoxious, but a machine that takes sweat-laden clothes and turns the moisture into drinking water has been launched in Sweden.

The device spins and heats the material to remove the sweat and then passes the vapour through a special membrane designed to only let water molecules get through, BBC reported.

Since its launch, its creators said more than 1,000 people have "drunk other's sweat" in Gothenburg city. The experts said the liquid was "cleaner" than local tap water.

The device was built for the Unicef to promote a campaign highlighting the fact that 780 million people in the world lack access to clean water.

The machine was designed and built by engineer Andreas Hammar, known locally for his appearances on TV tech show "Mekatronik".

Hammar said the critical part of the sweat machine was a water purification component developed by the HVR company in collaboration with Sweden's Royal Institute of Technology.

"It uses a technique called membrane distillation," he told BBC.

"We use a substance that only lets steam through but keeps bacteria, salts, clothing fibres and other substances out."

"They have something similar on the International Space Station to treat astronaut's urine - but our machine was cheaper to build.

"The amount of water it produces depends on how sweaty the person is - but one person's T-shirt typically produces 10 ml, roughly a mouthful," he said.

Mattias Ronge, chief executive of Stockholm-based advertising agency Deportivo - which organised the event - told BBC the machine helped raise awareness for Unicef, but in reality had its limitations.

He said the machine "will never be mass produced... there are better solutions out there such as water purifying pills".

Astronauts SPACE Walk out of the International Space Station

Two astronauts Tuesday ventured out of the International Space Station to carry out a variety of maintenance and installation tasks.
American Chris Cassidy and Italian Luca Parmitano started their spacewalk at 1202 GMT, and their tasks were expected to last six and a half hours, Xinhua cited NASA as saying on its website.
Cassidy was scheduled to route power cables to support the addition of the new Russian Multipurpose Laboratory Module that will arrive at the station later this year.
He will also remove and replace a space-to-ground transmitter receiver controller, which failed in December 2012.
Parmitano's task list includes removing a failed camera assembly and photographing the state-of-the-art particle physics detector known as Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-02 to provide researchers a visual assessment of its condition after two years in space.
The two will also team up to attach two grapple bars to thermal radiators to make them easier to remove and replace should they fail.
This is Parmitano's first spacewalk, making him the first Italian astronaut to walk in space, and Cassidy's fifth. The two are slated to head outside again next Tuesday.

Ancient snowfall cause valleys on Mars

Some valleys on the surface of Mars appear to have been caused by ancient runoff from melting snow, US researchers said.
While the Martian valley networks provide strong evidence that water once flowed on the Red Planet, the source of that ancient water is still debated by scientists. Some of them think water bubbled up from under the ground, while others claim it fell as rain or snow.
Researchers at Brown University believe that some of the water-carved valleys were created by runoff from a geological phenomenon known as orographic precipitation -- snow or rain that falls when moist prevailing winds are pushed upward by mountain ridges, Xinhua reported.
The researchers wrote in a paper in the journal Geophysical Research Letters that they identified four Martian locations where valley networks were found along tall mountain ridges or raised crater rims.
They then create a theoretical model to assess the direction of the prevailing winds at each location.
The model simulates air movement based on the gas composition scientists think was present in the early Mars atmosphere.
Next, the team used a model of orographic precipitation to determine where precipitation would be likely to fall in each of the study areas.
Their simulations showed that precipitation would have been heaviest at the heads of the densest valley networks.
'Their drainage density varies in the way you would expect from the complex response of precipitation to topography,' said Kat Scanlon, a geological sciences graduate student at Brown University who led the study.
'We were able to confirm that in a pretty solid way.'
According to the researchers, the atmospheric parameters used in the study are based on models that predict a cold climate, so the precipitation modeled was snow.
But this snow could have been melted by episodic warming conditions to form the valley networks, and indeed some precipitation could have been rain during this period, they said.
'The next step is to do some snowmelt modeling,' Scanlon said.
'The question is how fast can you melt a giant snow bank. Do you need rain? Is it even possible to get enough discharge to carve the valleys with just the snowmelt?
 

Two scientists break down plastics with bacteria

Once it's created, plastic (almost) never dies. While in 12th grade Miranda Wang and Jeanny Yao went in search of a new bacteria to biodegrade plastic -- specifically by breaking down phthalates, a harmful plasticizer. They found an answer surprisingly close to home.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more.
Find closed captions and translated subtitles in many languages at http://www.ted.com/translate